(Photo: USA TODAY Sports)

Maryland coach Mike Locksley said following Thursday's practice that he planned to take his team to the Baltimore Ravens preseason game against the Green Bay Packers later that night to reward them for their hard work over the last few days. It was an opportunity to support the hometown team, he said, and also former Terp Darnell Savage, who the Packers selected with the 21st pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. What he did not say was that he planned an especially special evening for one of his players, who found out in front of thousands of fans that he was being placed on scholarship ahead of his final season.

Senior linebacker Bruce Miller learned the news when he was asked to read a statement from the team during a break in the third quarter. "I didn’t have any idea," Miller told reporters following practice on Friday. "I just thought it was a message from coach Locks, he gave me the paper, and I still didn’t know until I got down to that part." He was mobbed by teammates before he could finish the statement.

“Us as teammates and brothers, we keep each other going on the field, so us putting the work together — whether you’re on walk-on or scholarship — we're all out here doing the same thing," Miller said. "My brothers, my teammates, like I said, we keep each other going, going back to last summer with Jordan [McNair], especially with that situation, losing our brother, we were like we have no choice but to come together now. Who else do we have but each other? I’m still in shock about the way they went about it."

Miller, a native of Chester, Pa., returned a short kickoff seven yards in his Maryland debut against Iowa last season and saw action against Indiana as well. He spent two years at Dean, a junior college in Massachusetts, before joining the Terps in 2017 to play with his brother B’Ahmad Miller, a redshirt sophomore defensive lineman. B'Ahmad Miller said the honor was well deserved.

"I’m still shocked about it right now," he said. "He’s been working his whole life for this, people don’t even know that. His dreams are my dreams, we’ve sat up nights, early mornings crying about this, talking about this. I started crying myself before he started crying. It’s just been a long journey."

Former Maryland basketball walk-on Andrew Terrell learned he was being placed on scholarship in a similar way last December, only in a more intimate setting. Terrell was called up in front of his teammates after practice to read what he thought was an excerpt from his blog. He was mobbed by his teammates as well.

Locksley said following Thursday's practice that the trip to M&T Bank Stadium would help break up the monotony of camp.

“It’s kind of in that point where it starts grinding on you and we need to have that kind of grind,” he said, “but also I feel we need to reward our guys for a job done well thus far of doing things the way we want them done.”

The Terps open the season at home against Howard on August 31.