Pittsburgh QB Perry Hills talks Terps pledge
The Maryland wrestling coaches looked at Perry Hills in January and saw a 189-pounder with ACC potential. Randy Edsall and the Terps football staff checked out the rising senior from Pittsburgh Central Catholic on Saturday and saw their quarterback of the future.
The 6-foot-3 Hills was in College Park this weekend for Maryland’s annual football camp. While the Terps’ wrestling staff sold him on the school, Hills hoped to earn his way to campus on the gridiron. At 6 p.m. on Saturday, after camp had ended, Edsall offered Hills a scholarship. One hour later, Hills accepted.
“I let him know Maryland was my No. 1 school. It’s been my No. 1 school since January,” Hills said Sunday. “He told me we could get this marriage on the road, [and then have] me start recruiting some of my teammates that have been offered by Maryland, too.”
Hills, who threw for 1,580 yards and 10 touchdowns as a junior, also considered offers from Akron, Buffalo, Kent State, Miami of Ohio and Old Dominion. Pittsburgh, Michigan State and West Virginia were also involved in his recruitment.
A two-year varsity football player and all-state wrestler, Hills quarterbacked coach Terry Totten’s Central Catholic squad to the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League semifinals last fall.
“He’s tough as nails, he’s a leader, he’s a winner [and] he’s tough,” Totten said. “His throwing motion, his size and his strength are just going to continue [improving] through the next year, year and a half. … I mean he’s had certain games, definitely, where he throws and you said, ‘Wow, he’s really on the verge of becoming a big-time kid.’”
Totten called Hills “a dropback guy,” but the future Terp has demonstrated his ability to run the football on a regular basis. At Pittsburgh’s camp a week ago, Hill was clocked at a 4.57 in the 40. At Maryland, he followed that up with a 4.67.
Hills came to Maryland’s camp knowing that a scholarship offer wasn’t a given. Defensive line coach Greg Gattuso told him he was in their top group of prospects, but he would have to do well in front of the staff for them to pull the trigger. The pressure to perform didn’t faze Hills a bit.
“To be a quarterback, you have to deal with pressure,” he said. “You learn how to deal with pressure in wrestling [because] everyone’s eyes are on you on the mat. That helps me a lot dealing with pressure."
Hills said Edsall joked that he planned to “get some champagne” to celebrate the commitment. The newest Terps pledge, however, had a more low-key celebration that consisted of driving back to Pittsburgh with a feeling of satisfaction.
“It feels great to know that you don’t have to worry about the recruiting game anymore, just concentrate on competing at the high school level," Hills said. "I’ll be the hardest worker, hopefully become a great quarterback and hopefully win a national title at Maryland.”
Comments
Matt...who else have the Terps offered from Pittsburgh Central Catholic?
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UMDFAN: According to Rivals' database, the Terps have offered wide receiver Anthony Nixon and are involved with linebacker Louis Taglianetti. -- Matt
Posted by: UMDFAN | June 12, 2011 9:50 PM
got a little of the MD / PA "mojo" working in our favor. nice
Posted by: pepper | June 13, 2011 7:16 AM
Hey Matt,
Welcome Perry Hills!
Is there some additional soon to be "breaking news" (pop...pop!!) with FB recruiting at the conclusion of these June summer camps?
Very little is known as to whats going on with recruiting except that offers were going to be made after the camps? Trying to get a handle on when we might know something since little specific information id forthcoming from Coach Edsall at this point. We're all just anxious and excited about the possibilities and would love to know more if possible.
Thanks for your reports!!
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Terps06: Thanks for the kind words. I would definitely expect more football commitments this month, but it's been tough identifying guys that they're really targeting. But I definitely think we'll see more post-camp commitments in the coming weeks. -- Matt
Posted by: Terps06 | June 13, 2011 8:25 AM
Hey Matt great job with the updates
Do you think MD with Coach Edsall will finish with a top 25 recruiting class?
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Obafemi: Thanks a lot. I think it might be tough to land a top 25 class. It will be a relatively small group, and the scouting services factor in size when it comes to ranking classes. -- Matt
Posted by: Obafemi | June 13, 2011 10:50 AM
Matt,
Its hard to tell if this is good news or not. Statistically, Perry sounds great.
I know what I'm about to write has been written before by others but I'll write it again: are we really supposed to be happy by landing players recruited by the likes of Akron, Buffalo, and the other smaller schools? Pitt and WVU are well known and make me feel better about the category of player they're also looking at. But still. Why are we not going after the bigger name players?
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miami terp nut: It seems to me that Edsall's going after a mix of highly rated guys and under-the-radar guys -- kind of like Friedgen did. Madaras is a consensus four-star guy that could've gone almost anywhere, but I believe Maryland was the only school to offer Brigham. Hills seems to have a resume comparable to Danny O'Brien and C.J. Brown -- guys who had clear upside but not a ton of offers. Hills might actually have more offers than those guys did. -- Matt
Posted by: miami terp nut | June 13, 2011 11:39 AM
Glad to hear they offered Nixon. He (#3) really jumps out on tape here, without really knowing the level of competition.
Posted by: Shas | June 13, 2011 12:49 PM
Hey Matt,
I was just wondering. I see that he threw for a little over 1500 yards last year, but with that, what were his completions an attempts. I'm just trying to get an idea of how much he was actually throwing last season. By the way, GREAT coverage on everything your doing for the SUN! Not quite sure where I would be without your articles when it comes to stuff like this concerning the TERPS. Keep up the GREAT work!
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Andru: Thanks very much. I really appreciate it. On Hills' stats, I pulled them from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article that I linked to, and they didn't list completions or attempts. But his Rivals bio says he was 83-for-154. http://rivals.yahoo.com/purdue/football/recruiting/player-Perry-Hills-119600 -- Matt
Posted by: Andru | June 14, 2011 3:08 AM
What about that damion jones-moore kid?
Posted by: Sportsguy | June 16, 2011 12:32 AM
Is he going to wrestle?
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Skippy: I believe that he's just focusing on football at UMD. -- Matt
Posted by: Skippy | October 20, 2011 9:20 AM