Maryland Football: Brandon Ross closes Terps career in style
By Chris Bengel
During the Maryland football’s win over Rutgers, the ground game carried the team.
It also allowed Brandon Ross to close his Terps career out in style.
Ross entered Saturday afternoon as the 10th leading rusher in Maryland history. However, when the clock hit zero, the Delaware native finished as the fourth leading rusher with 2,543 yards after a day in which he ran for 173 yards and three touchdowns.
He passed Bruce Perry in order to stake his claim to the No. 4 spot on the all-time rushing list.
As a team, the Terps ran for 401 yards and also saw true freshman Ty Johnson rush for a pair of 40-plus yard touchdowns in a 46-41 win over the Scarlet Knights.
One of the key highlights of Maryland’s success on the ground was Ross’ 80-yard touchdown run that won the game in the fourth quarter.
“I kind of had a strange feeling before the play that the lane was going to be open,” Ross said. “We were running stretch out of the gun. I knew if we just sold stretch, the hole would just open up on that back side and it did.”
Ross ended up rushing for 423 yards and six touchdowns in Maryland’s final two games of the season. During the entire 2015, he rushed for 963 yards and 10 touchdowns on 150 carries (6.4 yards-per-carry)
His season was even more impressive because there were four games when Ross only registered single-digit carries and had 31 yards or less on the ground. On the other hand, Ross did top the century mark in four games as well.
Ross arguably could’ve had an even more impressive career, but he split carries with Wes Brown throughout portions of his time with the Terps.
During his freshman season in 2012, Brown suffered a season-ending shoulder injury against Clemson and was forced to miss the final two games of that season. Ross saw extended playing time in Brown’s absence, including rushing for 141 yards and a touchdown against North Carolina in the season finale.
The 2013 season saw Ross as the team’s starting running back after Brown was suspended for the entire season due to off-the-field issues. Ross had his second-best season as a Terp in 2013 as he rushed for 776 yards and four touchdowns.
The 2014 campaign was certainly a down year for Ross as he only tallied 417 yards and didn’t even lead the team in rushing.
After an up-and-down career at Maryland, Ross was able to put together a phenomenal senior season. He finished sixth in the Big Ten in rushing and only trailed Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott and Iowa’s Jordan Canzeri in terms of total touchdowns.
Now what’s next for Ross?
“I’ll take the game as far as I can take,” Ross said after Saturday’s game. “Train, Pro Day, all of that. I have some good trainers at home that actually are the reason I got here.”
Whether it’s the NFL or another league, Ross certainly has the determination to be successful on and off the field.
From a two-star recruit to Saturday’s performance, it’s been quite a ride watching Ross the past four years and he certainly went out on top.