With the season-opener a week and a half away, Maryland has ended its quarterback competition and announced that senior Perry Hills will start against Howard on September 3rd.

“After an open competition through the spring and the first two-plus weeks of training camp, we’re excited to move forward with Perry Hills as our starting quarterback,” Terrapins coach DJ Durkin confirmed in a school release. “Perry has embraced this challenge from day one and has put in the work and shown improvement every day. He’s grasped our offense and the way we want to do things, and has shown tremendous leadership.”

The move comes as no surprise. Last Saturday, the Terps held an open scrimmage at Maryland Stadium and Hills, who also won an open quarterback competition out of fall camp last season, received the majority of the first-team reps. Afterwards, Durkin declined to name a starter, citing he still needed to review practice film, but noted a decision was coming within the next week.

All five quarterbacks in camp -- Hills, Caleb Rowe, Gage Shaffer, Tyrrell Pigrome and Max Bortenschlager -- received opportunities in camp. Durkin called it a five-way battle, but Hills appeared to be in the driver’s seat from the start. He received the snaps with the starting group this month while Rowe, perhaps his toughest competition, missed more than a week of practice with an undisclosed injury. Rowe was cleared a few days before Maryland’s scrimmage but neither he nor Shaffer, who was previously receiving second-team reps, saw time on Saturday. Pigrome and Bortenschlager, both true freshmen, alternated in between Hills’ drives.

The Pittsburgh, Pa. native was intercepted in the first half of the scrimmage, on a ball batted at the line of scrimmage that ultimately fell into the hands of cornerback Jarrett Ross, before throwing touchdowns to seniors Malcolm Culmer, Levern Jacobs and DeAndre Lane in situational drills. Pigrome was also picked off by Alvin Hill.

“Perry is fine,” Durkin said following the scrimmage. “That’s a tough guy. He doesn’t get rattled by that stuff.”

Durkin stated during Maryland’s media day last week that everyone on the roster -- even the quarterbacks -- would have a “clean slate” but added that the turnovers from last year was something openly discussed.

"Every guy has different strengths in terms of what his abilities are talent-wise," Durkin said at Maryland's media day Tuesday. "We can design our offense based on that, whatever that is. It's the guy that makes the best decisions and can lead the team the best way and really, really manage what we do."

Hills started eight games at quarterback last year, at times being benched in favor of Rowe, and completed 50 percent of his passes for 1,001 yards, eight touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The Terps quarterbacks combined to lead the nation in interceptions, highlighted by 15 from Rowe in only four starts, but Hills has improved his mechanics after working out this summer with former NFL quarterback Gus Frerotte.