Maryland Football: A look back at history with Purdue
By Chris Bengel
The Maryland football team enters their third Big Ten season this coming fall.
Despite two seasons under their belt, the Terrapins have only faced Purdue on one occasion and it wasn’t since the longtime ACC school became a Big Ten member.
The Boilermakers and Terps did battle in the Champ Sports Bowl back in 2006.
The 2006 season was very kind to Maryland as the Terps finished second in the ACC Atlantic Division with a 5-3 mark in the league. After a pair of 5-6 finishes the prior two seasons, Maryland ended the season with a 9-4 record.
Purdue entered the Champs Sports Bowl with an 8-5 mark and finished the season tied for fourth in the Big Ten.
This bowl game was one that Maryland dominated in the first half.
After Purdue missed a 42-yard field goal on their second drive of the game, Maryland put together what turned out to be their longest drive of the contest. Running back Lance Ball rushed for 49 yards on the series.
The drive was capped off when quarterback Sam Hollenbach surveyed the field out of the shotgun and found tight end Joey Haynos for the game’s first touchdown. Haynos was one of four Terps to catch at least three passes in the Orlando-based bowl game.
With 13:33 left in the second quarter, Maryland struck again against the Boilermakers. The Terps orchestrated a 10-play drive on their next possession after the Haynos touchdown. The drive ended with a one-yard touchdown run from fullback Cory Jackson.
Jackson didn’t run the football very much that season or over the course of his Maryland career for that matter.
During the 2006 campaign, Jackson carried the ball just four times for 12 yards with one those of carries being the touchdown against Purdue. In his Maryland career, he only registered 17 rushing attempts for 46 yards and two touchdowns.
In the final minutes of the first half, Maryland went to their most consistent playmaker to help put the game out of reach. With 2:05 to go in the opening half, Hollenbach dropped back to pass and found Darrius Heyward-Bey in single coverage for a 46-yard touchdown.
2006 was Heyward-Bey’s first season with the Terps, but he still ended up catching 45 catches for 694 yards and five touchdowns. Heyward-Bey ended up having a phenomenal career at Maryland, which culminated in being selected seventh overall by the Oakland Raiders in the 2009 NFL Draft.
The Boilermakers did finally see get on the board in the final minute of the first half. Curtis Painter found Greg Orton from 12 yards out to cut the Maryland lead to 21-7.
However, that’s as close as Purdue would get.
Kicker Dan Ennis connected on a 22-yard field goal in the third quarter to make it a 24-7 game. That would ice the game as Maryland went on to defeat Purdue 24-7 in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Maryland and Purdue don’t have much of a history, but this game definitely went in the Terps favor.
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When the two teams will do battle this fall, Maryland could have a similar performance with Purdue being one of the lesser teams in the Big Ten a season ago.