MIAMI — First-year coach DJ Durkin knew his Maryland football team had plenty of room for improvement when going to play Florida International on Friday night, even if it didn't appear that way to many Terps fans after the team's season-opening win over Howard.

Though Maryland (2-0) didn't put up as many points or pile up as many yards as it did six days earlier in a 52-13 win over the Bison, Durkin seemed satisfied that positive steps were taken in a 41-14 win over the Panthers at FIU Stadium.

What Durkin appeared most pleased about was the businesslike approach the Terps took to practice last week in College Park in preparing for their first road game of the season, and how they applied the same mindset toward putting together another dominant performance.

“We can't be up one week and down the next. When you do that in college football, you're going to be average at best,” Durkin said outside the locker room Friday. “Our whole thing with our team is, there's a certain way to prepare, there's a certain way to do things, day in and day out. So far, two into it, I feel good about how we've done that.”

Durkin was happy to see fifth-year senior quarterback Perry Hills go from being more of an efficient game manager against Howard to more of a game changer against FIU, with the help of sophomore wide receiver D.J. Moore.

Hills, who was 14-for-19 for 126 yards and no touchdowns against Howard, completed 13 of 18 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns, including two to Moore, on Friday. Hills also ran eight times for 52 yards, a few of those runs coming on designed plays.

“When you have to defend a quarterback that can do both, beat you both ways, it limits your [defensive] calls a little bit in what you can do. You can't take some chances that you would otherwise,” Durkin said.

Moore caught six passes from Hills for a career-high 147 yards, a performance highlighted by a 45-yarder on which he got behind a defender for a touchdown and a 40-yard catch-and-run for another touchdown. The two also combined on a 21-yard flea flicker.

“D.J. Moore, I feel is a great football player, a great receiver,” Durkin said. “He's a complete player. He blocks on the edge. Some of the stuff that doesn't show up in the run game [stats], he's blocking like crazy out there. He's got big-play capability, which he showed. We'll continue to get the ball to him for sure.”

The offense, which didn't turn the ball over for the second straight week, also got a 40-yard touchdown run from freshman Lorenzo Harrison.

NOTES: With his team scoring 93 points, Durkin moved behind only Harry C. “Curley” Byrd for the most points scored for a Maryland coach in the first two games of a season. Byrd's 1927 team scored 106 in its first two games. ... Sophomore transfer JC Jackson, who sat out against Howard because of what was described as an “academic matter” from before he arrived at Maryland, started Friday and finished with three tackles.

don.markus@baltsun.com

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