COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- D.J. Durkin made it through his first spring as Maryland head coach with a healthy team and a positive outlook for the future. Having only 14 practices under his belt, Durkin knows the team isn’t where it needs to be, but the players have bought in and are progressing.

"We have a ways to go and completely understand the tempo we want to play at and what we want to do," he said. "But we made great strides throughout the spring. At times it looked good, it didn’t look so good, but overall I’m proud of our guys for what they did, not only today, but throughout the whole spring."

The staff has thrown a lot at the team in a short amount of time, and Durkin praised the players for being coachable and having a want to get better, which has contributed to the improvement he has seen.

Durkin is hoping to see those improvements continue into the fall as the Terps are coming off of a 3-9 season that saw the offense finish in the bottom half of the conference in most offensive statistics.

Because of the underachieving numbers, the offense has been a main focus, specifically at quarterback. Maryland returns senior quarterbacks Caleb Rowe and Perry Hills, redshirt freshman Gage Shaffer, and will add incoming freshmen Max Bortenschlager and Tyrell Pigrome to the mix.

Hills is optimistic that new offensive coordinator Walt Bell has them headed in the right direction and has installed an exciting, fast-paced offense that suits their personnel.

"This offense, it’s a really, really good offense, and Coach Bell does a good job of teaching every single position what they have to do so we can perfect it and then play as fast as we can," Hills said. "We’ll go and watch film and if guys aren’t flying around, playing until the whistle we’ll have 'loafs' and then we’ll handle those on Monday by having up-downs and get that corrected. He wants to see guys going 100 percent the full time."

Much like the rest of the positions on the team, Durkin says the quarterback competition will continue into August, constantly being evaluated.

Though Hills and Rowe have the most experience, the coaches aren’t counting out the other three who are vying for the starting spot.

"Caleb and Perry are both doing a good job; I think they’ve both made great improvements throughout the spring," Durkin said. "We also have two freshmen that are coming in here in the summer that, they’re going to have some say in that competition as well. We’re going into August with guys that have the ability to go earn a spot if you want one, or keep a spot if you like it and whatever else, we’re going to settle it on the field."

The staff will be limited in what they can do with the players until the fall rolls around, but Durkin is hopeful that his team will continue to take to the coaching and adapt to the change in culture.

He is optimistic about what he saw this spring, and believes he and his staff got closer to understanding exactly who they are as a team.

"That was one of the keys in the spring of figuring out better who we are, what we’re good at, depth-chart wise, personnel-wise," Durkin said. "It also [allowed] for us to set the scheme in what we think we can do well. I think we’re much closer on that, and this gives us time now to sit back, reflect after spring as a staff, get together and really hone in on that as we go into fall camp."