Caleb Rowe tosses 4 touchdowns in Maryland win

By Chris Bengel | Sep 19, 2015

Maryland was embarrassed by Bowling Green last week.

One week and a quarterback change later, the Terrapins rebound to beat South Florida 35-17 on Saturday.

Quarterback Caleb Rowe completed 21-of-33 passes for 297 yards and four touchdowns. The junior signal caller also threw three interceptions in the win.

Maryland’s wide receivers also had a strong performance, including Levern Jacobs topping the century mark with 108 yards.

Maryland had a strong start to the game as they forced South Florida to go three-and-out on their first series.

With Rowe making his first start in almost two years, it certainly wasn’t the start he envisioned. On just Maryland’s third play from scrimmage, Rowe was looking for Jacobs, but the pass sailed into the hands of Bulls safety Devin Abraham.

Abraham, who is the nephew of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Donnie Abraham, took the ball back to the Maryland four-yard line. On the very next play, quarterback Quinton Flowers handed the ball off to wideout Rodney Adams on a jet sweep and Adams just squeaked into the end zone for the touchdown to give South Florida a 7-0 lead.

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Maryland put their first drive behind them in a hurry.

The Terps started off at their own 41-yard line due to the fact that the kickoff was fielded by running back Ty Johnson as he was an up-man. It took eight plays for Maryland to find the end zone, including two completions to new starting receiver D.J. Moore.

The drive concluded on a play action pass from Rowe in which he found fullback Kenneth Goins Jr. wide open for the touchdown to tie the game. Rowe completed four of his five passing attempts on the drive.

The big play was eluded the Terps through the first two games this season, but that changed on Saturday.

On the final play of the first quarter, Rowe got rid of the ball very quickly and found wideout Taivon Jacobs open down the sideline for a 70-yard touchdown. It was the first career touchdown for Jacobs and gave the Terps a 14-7 lead.

Just before halftime, the Bulls added a field goal to cut the deficit to 14-10. However, with just seconds remaining, Rowe heaved a deep pass that was hauled in by Jacobs for a 49-yard completion at the two-yard line. With just 15 seconds left, Rowe flipped the option to running back Brandon Ross and Ross couldn’t catch the pitch. However, Ross was able to scoop the ball up and run nearly untouched into the end zone to give the Terps a 21-10 lead at halftime.

Maryland began the second half with solid field position because South Florida didn’t want to kick the football to cornerback Will Likely. After a roughing the passer penalty, Rowe found freshman tight end Avery Edwards for a 12-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 28-10.

Edwards finished the game with three receptions for 36 yards and two touchdowns. The former North Carolina commit also had a wide-open touchdown catch in the fourth quarter.

The Terps continued their hot start in the second half with a pair of sacks on South Florida’s first drive. Flowers was brought down by defensive ends Jesse Aniebonam and Roman Braglio on third and fourth downs.

Despite Flowers being a very mobile quarterback, Maryland registered five sacks on the afternoon. Braglio recorded two of those in the second half.

Maryland will travel to Morgantown to face West Virginia next Saturday for a 3 p.m. kickoff.

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