It looks like Maryland has found its quarterback as the team announced on Monday that sophomore Tyrrell Pigrome will start in the season opener against Texas.
“Tyrrell did a great job through this camp. That’s how he earned the job,” Terps’ head coach D.J. Durkin said. “We had good, healthy competition all the way through and that’s why we kept it going so long.”
Pigrome, who was the 2016 Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year, played in 11 of the Terps’ 13 games last season and started in one. Pigrome went 37-71 for 322 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Pigrome displayed his running potential as he ran for 254 yards and four touchdowns.
Durkin stressed the challenges of finding a starting quarterback, and how players are the ones that decide who’s in the starting lineup.
“The quarterback position is – and I understand publicly is probably different than most, for us – in our program it’s the same, meaning it’s settled on the field,” Durkin said. “Players decide who plays. Whoever ends up being the starter at any position, I think it helps having depth at a position where all those guys – you come to work every day knowing ‘I could either A – lose my job today’ or ‘I have the chance to go take someone else’s job based on how I perform.’
Pigrome won the starting job over freshman Kasim Hill, who will be the second string quarterback, and sophomore Max Bortenschlager. One thing that was in Pigrome favor was the amount of experience he gained as a freshman.
“I think experience is always something that helps. The best way to get better at football is to play football,” Durkin said. “So if you’ve been out there playing, you’ve certainly had an opportunity to get better and been in the fire before.”
In addition to Maryland naming Pigrome as the starting quarterback, the Terps released their full depth chart.
“Although I know that was a big announcement yesterday, who the starting quarterback was, there was a lot of other starters that were put on there [the depth chart],” Durkin said. “It was just how they performed, how they played in competitive situations.”
Follow Inside The Locker Room on Twitter
Inside The Locker Room 