Maryland Terrapins Lose Quarterback After Quarterback to ACL Injuries

Has any team had more quarterbacks go down to injury in a season than the Maryland Terrapins? The Terps lost their starter before the season even began. On Saturday against they used their fourth starter of the year. Maryland has lost every quarterback on its depth chart and had to start a linebacker against Georgia Tech.

In August, the Terps went into practice with three young quarterbacks. Last year’s starter C.J. Brown was lost before the season started because of a torn ACL. He was the only man with any experience at the position as Danny O’Brien had transferred to Wisconsin.

Freshman Perry Hills started the season. He played in seven games before tearing his ACL on October 20 against North Carolina State. Like Brown, Hills is lost for the season.

Caleb Rowe and Devin Burns stepped in for Hills during the N.C. State game. They almost led Maryland to victory. A missed field goal as time ran out led to a 20-18 defeat.

The Terps string of bad luck continued as they found out that Burns also tore his ACL in the N.C. State game. Maryland was down to one quarterback, Rowe, who was supposed to be red shirted.

After the Boston College game the Terps had none. Unbelievably, Rowe tore his ACL while scrambling on the next to last play of the game. He stayed in and threw an interception on the next play, but the damage was done.

So last Saturday Maryland started a linebacker at quarterback in local boy Shawn Petty. Petty is a freshman who played quarterback at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt. I helped officiate a couple of his games. He has good size and a good arm. Petty is a better runner than passer, but the left-hander can throw accurately.

Whether Petty wins or loses the Terps hope he can simply avoid tearing his ACL. It is highly unlikely that any football team at any level has had a run of ACL tears like Maryland. It would take all the powers of Sherlock Holmes to figure out why these injuries keep occurring. If anyone does they should get in touch with Terps head coach Randy Edsall. I am sure he would like to know, because only his job hangs in the balance.

Let’s hope that the black cloud that hangs over Maryland quarterbacks passes over soon. No one should have to go through a spate of four knee injuries to anyone on their team.