MIAMI — Maryland offensive coordinator Walt Bell doesn't carry a stopwatch, since he has had a clock running in his head ever since he can remember, one that is often moving faster than his new team these days as he watches the game clock tick down.
"If we don't change formation, you like to see that snapped 30, 29 [seconds] left on the shot clock," Bell said this week in College Park. "So you're talking roughly 10 [seconds] from the time the clock is wound for play. … If you get below there, we have some transition issues."
During last Saturday's season-opening 52-13 win over Howard at Maryland Stadium, the 32-year-old assistant — who is trying to get the Terps to play from fast to furious in making opposing teams struggle to figure them out — must have felt like he was aging.
Bell attributed it to not having familiarity with the opposing defense since Howard's interim coach and defensive coordinator, Rayford Petty, had just returned to the role after previously serving as head coach from 2002 to 2006 and interim coach in 2013.
On top of that, Bell said that Maryland began clearing its bench in the second half, including using two true freshman quarterbacks, Tyrrell Pigrome and Max Bortenschlager, as well as two true freshman running backs, Lorenzo Harrison and Jake Funk.
"A lot of it had to do with us just getting into the right look," Bell said. "Some of it was by design, some of it — especially in that second half when you had that younger group out there — things weren't as efficient as they need to be in terms of communications."
With one game in the books — one which featured three short-field scores and one more sustained drive in the first half — Maryland (1-0) was hoping to quicken the pace when it played Florida International (0-1) at Ocean Bank Field on Friday.
While few if any personnel changes are expected after an opening game in which the Terps rushed for 315 yards, redshirt senior quarterback Perry Hills connected on his first 10 passes and 14 of 19 overall and the offensive line played nearly mistake-free, Bell is counting on more of the same against FIU.
At this point in the team's development, the pace of the offense is only part of a successful equation. Bell would like to see the Terps continue to play "clean," as in committing no turnovers and having their share of "explosive" plays.
"When you turn it over less and have more explosive plays, you'll win 99.8 percent of the time," Bell said. "The explosive play piece — one of the things that allows you to create more explosive plays is being in second-and-4, being in second-and-3. ... That allows you to be even more aggressive."
A year ago, the Terps often self-destructed with turnovers, leading all Football Bowl Subdivision teams with a ghastly 29 interceptions. Their 36 overall turnovers were exactly double the amount they forced. Maryland ran just over 69 plays per game, compared with 75.5 for the teams they faced.
Senior offensive tackle Michael Dunn said this week that the pace of the offense this season is better for Hills, who was the team's second-leading rusher a year ago with 535 yards on 109 carries but threw 13 interceptions to eight touchdowns.
"He fits really well into the offense," Dunn said. "There's a lot of reads, a lot of quarterback runs. He fits perfectly in his offense, put in that way."
As for the other players, including the offensive linemen, getting accustomed to the pace of the offense, Dunn said there is room for improvement.
"We could play a lot faster, and we're going to keep working every week to play faster," Dunn said. "At this point, we've had so much practice at it, we've worked all summer long, all winter, to go at this speed. It doesn't feel that much different than the speed we were going at last year."
Dunn said that the offense run by former coordinator Mike Locksley had the same intent, but didn't get the same results.
"I feel like we've never been able to reach this level of speed," Dunn said.
Dunn credits Bell for not clogging the heads of his players with intricate calls and formations.
"Coach Bell has done an incredible job making the offense as simple as he can for us as an offensive line and us as a unit as a whole, so the emphasis of just going fast, running to the ball and hurrying up, we don't have to worry as much about making calls," Dunn said. "We just go out and play football."
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