ORLANDO — With a near-sellout crowd at Bright House Networks Stadium going crazy Saturday night, and with senior quarterback Perry Hills still flat on his back after taking a hit to his right shoulder, Maryland coach DJ Durkin wanted to talk to backup Tyrrell Pigrome about taking care of the football.
"Pigrome, the guy's got ice in his veins," Durkin said later, after Pigrome's 24-yard run through the middle of the Central Florida defense had given the Terps a 30-24 double-overtime victory. "There was nothing big about the moment for him."
Pigrome had played in Maryland's first two games, but it happened after Hills and the Terps had built substantial leads over two lesser opponents; Howard and Florida International. This time came after Maryland had forced a fumble, and Hills had rushed for a 1-yard gain before getting hurt.
"He [Pigrome] stood in the huddle and said, 'Okay, what do we got here, let's run it,' " Durkin said. "I'm sitting there and talking about ball security and he's probably looking at me like, 'Don't worry about that, I'm going to score.' Then he just went out and did it. He's calm and cool about it and he did a great job. The guys blocked on the play well for him."
Pigrome's teammates were not surprised by what he did.
"We see it in practice all the time," senior cornerback Will Likely said. "Once he got in [the game], everyone was comfortable. Everybody knows what he can do. We see it every day. When he gets in, we get aside to see what he can do."
Said senior running back Kenneth Goins Jr. (Gilman): "No doubt about it. He's a great player. Whenever he gets in, I have faith. There's no drop-off. Next man up, you've got to stay ready."
Pigrome wasn't the only freshman quarterback to impress Likely.
The All-Big Ten cornerback and All-American return specialist didn't know much about Central Florida's McKenzie Milton before the game, and like Maryland's defensive coaches and players, Likely educated himself on the 5-foot-11, 170-pound player from Hawaii in the hours leading up to Saturday night's game.
"We kind of saw his high school film, we knew he could run," Likely said of Milton. "He's a pretty good player. I told him after the game he's a pretty good player and if he can keep it up, he's going to be a guy that everyone's talking about in the future."
The same might be said for the freshman known as "Piggy."