Maryland, Boston College meet in Detroit after turnarounds

DETROIT — Maryland and Boston College are meeting today in the Motor City after quite a turnaround.

The Terrapins (6-6) and the Eagles (6-6) bounced back with relatively strong seasons after slumping to 3-9 records last season.

While a trip to Detroit in the winter may not seem like much of a reward in college football’s bowl-filled postseason, both programs seem thankful they did enough to earn a spot in the Quick Lane Bowl.

“It’s a measuring stick for the amount of success in a year,” said Boston College’s Steve Addazio, who joined Jack Bicknell as the only coaches in school history to lead the team to a bowl game in three of their first four seasons.

Maryland also is in the postseason for the third time in four years, this time with first-year coach DJ Durkin. Durkin started seven true freshmen at some point this season, but he credited his outgoing players with helping the program win again.

“I’m pleased with the amount of buy-in from our seniors,” he said. “They’ve been through a lot of adversity in their career and they stayed the course.”

Addazio and Durkin were on the same staff in 2010 at Florida. Addazio went on to become a first-time head coach in 2011 at Temple, where he won 13 games over two seasons before being hired by Boston College. Durkin stayed with the Gators through the 2014 season before leaving to be Michigan’s defensive coordinator and reuniting with Jim Harbaugh, with whom he coached at Stanford.

“I genuinely love DJ, and I genuinely think he’s one of the finest coaches out there,” Addazio said. “I think Maryland is extremely lucky and smart to have hired him.” The feeling is mutual. “Steve’s a guy I look up to (in) this profession,” Durkin said.

The Eagles gave up just 311 yards of offense and 107 yards rushing on the ground per game, ranking seventh in the nation in both categories. They’ll be prepared for Maryland’s offense because of playing teams such as Clemson in the ACC.

“They’re a high-flying, fast-tempo,” Addazio said. “I’m just hoping they don’t score 9,000 points.”

Maryland quarterback Perry Hills connected on a Big Tenbest 66 percent of his passes and ranked second in pass efficiency.

“He’s been a really good player for us this year when he’s been healthy,” Durkin said. “We’ve had some ups and downs based on his health. He was back for us the last game of the year. He’s back healthy now.”