Maryland offensive coordinator Walt Bell is a firm believer in the philosophy that if you have two quarterbacks, you have zero quarterbacks. Multiple-quarterback systems have rarely succeeded on a consistent basis in college football, and Maryland won’t be testing that model anytime soon despite its push to stockpile talent and competition at the position over the past nine months.  Bell has found his starter in senior Perry Hills, who won the job in August for a second straight season and had one of the more efficient games of his career in last Saturday’s season-opening win over Howard. He completed his first 10 passes and looked in comfortable command of Bell’s up-tempo spread, finishing 14 for 19 for 126 yards. The most impressive statistics? Hills didn’t turn the ball over and the offense didn’t commit any pre-snap penalties, operating at the kind of clean, rapid pace that Bell has demanded of his unit.  [With JC Jackson in limbo, former walk-in steps in for Maryland football]  But Maryland fans also received a glimpse of the electrifying talent of true freshman Tyrrell Pigrome, who entered in the third quarter and engineered a touchdown drive on the first series of his career. He finished 4 for 6 for 63 yards and ran for another 56 yards on seven attempts, which included perhaps the highlight of the day, in which Pigrome juked a Howard defender out of his shoes and sprang free into the open field for a 25-yard run. That triggered questions about whether the staff would consider a rotation, complementing Hills with the skill set of Pigrome. Bell quickly shot that notion down when he met with reporters on Wednesday.  [Why freshman quarterbacks are taking over college football]  “No, absolutely not,” Bell said when he was asked about the possibility of running a two-quarterback system. “Perry Hills is the starter. He will be the starter until he renders himself not the starter. I think one of the things that is truly important for the quarterback position is that you play it confidently … the demeanor in which you play that position, from a command aspect, from a decisive, decision-making standpoint, you can’t do either of those two things if you got somebody coming in there to replace you all the time.”  Playing quarterback in Bell’s system is “a lot like being a volume-puncher in boxing,” he said, because it forces Hills to be economical. He is managing the line of scrimmage and lining up his teammates in formations at a speed he had never experienced in his four previous years in College Park, and on that end, his performance against Howard was mostly clean. By the game plan’s design, he didn’t take many shots down the field. He mostly worked intermediate routes — Hills completed seven balls for 11 yards or more, with his longest completion measuring 19 yards — and he logged just one carry. A year after he had one of the most successful seasons running the football as a quarterback in school history — he finished with 570 yards, good for fourth all-time — Hills might not be the flashy runner that Pigrome is, but he’s capable of pounding the ball in between the tackles and on the perimeter.  [Twin brothers Elijah and Elisha Daniels share in Maryland football’s youth movement]  Bell expects to use Hills’s improved athleticism more on the ground as the season progresses, but the first week was an exercise in restraint and an uptick in explosive plays are expected as the unit’s efficiency improves on first downs. In 18 first-down plays under the direction of Hills, Maryland averaged 6.9 yards per clip. Hills went 8 for 9 passing for 63 yards on first downs.  “It makes it a lot easier. Third and long, those are only completed about 25 percent of the time,” Hills said. “Whenever you can get yourself into third and short, or just keep getting first downs, it makes it a lot better as an offense.”  Bell also maintained that Pigrome is a “very unique character,” and didn’t rule out building special packages to use the true freshman in down the road. But his percentage of error at the line of scrimmage remains high, Bell said, and the staff is continuing to help Pigrome adjust to the speed and complexities of the college game. The position has also been bolstered by the return of senior quarterback Caleb Rowe, who is inching back to full health and returned to the two-deep this week. Rowe is listed as a co-backup along with Pigrome and fellow true freshman Max Bortenschlager, but Bell is riding with Hills as his entrenched starter unless circumstances dictate otherwise.  “It was very refreshing to see him smile and have fun,”Bell said, “and just play.”
While true freshman Tyrrell Pigrome has dazzled with his athleticism, Maryland won't platoon him with starter Perry Hills.