A recurring series where we will profile every player on Maryland's roster, counting down to kick-off against William & Mary on September 1. Thanks to OBNUG for the idea.
Today we profile Maryland's starting quarterback.
Perry Hills, Freshman, Quarterback, #11
via grfx.cstv.com
Stats:
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 205
Major: Civil Engineering
Twitter: @Perry_Hills
Collegiate Stats: N/A
High School Stats (Senior Year): 2,000 yards passing, 13 touchdown passes, two interceptions, four rushing scores
Recruiting Ratings: Three stars by Rivals (#30 in Pa.), Scout (#29 QB), 24/7 (#25 in Pa., #39 Pro-style QB), ESPN (#46 in Pa., #77 QB)
High School: Pittsburgh Central Catholic
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa.
High School Highlights:
How'd He Get to College Park?
Perry Hills was an all-conference quarterback and an all-state wrestler in high school, playing at Central Catholic with fellow Maryland signee Anthony Nixon, Hills' top target in high school.
Apart from Maryland, Hills was offered by a host of MAC schools, but was rated as one of the better quarterbacks in the state of Pennsylvania. He committed to Maryland in June of 2011.
Hills came into this season probably not expecting to play much, but won out the backup spot to C.J. Brown a few weeks ago. When Brown went down with an injury, it was Hills' job to lose. By all accounts, he's held on to it so far. More on that later.
Nickname:
Perry "Winkle" Hills
Career Highlight:
Winning the starting job.
Career Lowlight:
N/A.
Dream Season:
Hills holds on to the starting spot and somehow leads the Terps to a bowl game.
Nightmare Season:
One of the other two candidates for the job wins it out.
2012 Prospectus:
I considered starting out with a negative post here just for our dear friend yesterday in the comments section of our Caleb Rowe profile, but alas, this series is meant as light-hearted profiles to introduce you to the players of our favorite team. It wouldn't be fair to Hills to downgrade him for the sake of comedy, just like it wasn't fair for someone to embarrass him in the way they did yesterday in some false sense of protection.
ANYWAY, Perry Hills is the favorite to start at quarterback, and with good reason. He was a very good quarterback in high school, has impressed in camp, and honestly looks to be the best of a group of inexperienced options.
Hills is a good fit for the offense (or as good as we're going to find on such short notice), because he has a similar skillset to C.J. Brown, even arguably with better throwing potential. He's great on the ground, and you've got to imagine that will be the focus of Mike Locksley's offense this year.
The problem, of course, is that he's inexperienced - but experience isn't exactly something you're going to find in the other options. All three of the Terps quarterbacks are without a single collegiate snap behind center, so whoever the coaches end up going with is going to have a steep learning curve.
On the surface, the direct competition seems to be Rowe, another true freshman. Rowe is a different kind of quarterback than Hills, which could either help him or hurt him. Rowe is more of a pro-style passer, while Hills is a dual threat. Like we said yesterday, it wouldn't be surprising to see both play at times, depending on the scenario, and maybe we finally get to see a "Wild Turtle" formation.
The real threat for Hills may be converted wide receiver Devin Burns. Burns impressed in last weekend's scrimmage (as did Hills), but the run-first mentality for both makes it likely that one will end up the starter. Burns probably won't be ready to start in the first game of the season (as he just made the switch back about a week ago), but it's something to look at down the road if he continues to improve.
For now, Perry Hills is Maryland's starting quarterback, and while that's not the ideal situation we may have envisioned just a few weeks ago, with C.J. Brown out it looks like the best option we have. Godspeed, Mr. Hills.
Up Next:
The subject of our next profile finished his career in the top twenty of his school's all-time tackles list.
Dirty_Terps got the answer yesterday, but I think we can all agree trueterpfan81 won the discussion. We're giving them both points.
Standings:
Terpsonfire - 12
Maryland1206 - 12
Dirty_Terps - 10
kbuts151 - 6
bubbasparks - 5
ClickClack62 - 3
Terpsfinish - 2
curterp - 2
fballplyr92 - 2
T Free - 1
Mdak06 - 1
clevesanterp - 1
CSB Jack - 1
trueterpfan81 - 1
Everybody else - 0