COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- All week leading up to a matchup with Northwestern, Maryland quarterback Max Bortenschlager has been considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury that he suffered in last week’s loss to Ohio State. If the sophomore can’t go on Saturday when the Terps host the Wildcats, Maryland will be forced to play its fourth different signal caller this season. But preparing multiple quarterbacks to be ready to start throughout the week is familiar territory for head coach D.J. Durkin and his coaching staff.

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“Certainly we know better than anyone with the way things have gone that when you’re one play away that’s close to getting on the field,” Durkin said. “So I think you have to always be ready to go and have the right mindset going into the game as being the starter.”

According to Durkin, Bortenschlager has been able to log some practice time this week, and he and junior Caleb Henderson have been getting coached up to lead Maryland’s offense against the Wildcats.

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However, Terps fans shouldn’t expect an update on Bortenschlager’s status or who the starting quarterback will be until just before kickoff on Saturday.

“[Bortenschlager] is progressing well throughout the week and he’ll be a game-time decision,”

If Bortenschlager can’t go, Henderson will be asked to step into his first significant game action since he was a senior in high school at Burke (Va.) Lake Braddock. Henderson was a four-star recruit who spent the first half of his college career on North Carolina’s roster behind some very talented arms before transferring to Maryland last summer.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound dual-threat quarterback was in the mix during the spring to start for the Terps this season, but a foot injury that required surgery set him back and pushed him down the depth chart.

Henderson’s chance to start for the Terps has certainly been delayed and there’s no guarantee it’s going to come this week, but his offensive coordinator in College Park Walt Bell, who also recruited him to UNC, knows that he’s the type of player who can come in and get the job done if called upon.

“That’s a guy--all the ability is there,” Bell said of Henderson. “He was behind a CFL guy in Marquise Williams and an NFL guy, the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, in Mitch Trubisky. Sometimes that takes its toll on you too, knowing you can play but there are a few guys that are better. When he decided to move, we all know why he did that. The writing was on the wall. He wanted to go win a job. He just hasn’t had the ability to do that because of his health. Hopefully we can get him comfortable, get him going, and get him ready to play well.”

Bell elaborated and gave his scouting report of Henderson, even comparing him to a former Maryland quarterback who always played his heart out for the Terps.

“[Henderson] is a big, strong athletic guy; he throws a nice deep ball; from a skill set standpoint, he kind of reminds you of Perry [Hills] a little bit,” Bell said. “He’s a little bit of a grinder. For him it’s just about system mastery and just the confidence of being out there. He hasn’t been out there for a long time and he hasn’t been out there for any significant snaps since he was a senior in high school.

“Especially coming off of the injury and losing all of the spring that he lost and the majority of fall camp, I think it’s just the growth curve of playing. The athletic ability and skills are there, but we just have to make sure we put together a plan that he can execute. It doesn’t matter what I can do. It matters what he can do. So we have to make sure we put him in a position to do that.”

Both Bell and Durkin agreed that even with “musical chairs” at the quarterback position in College Park this season, the coaching staff can’t make sweeping changes to the offense that are too radical and affect the other 10 guys on that side of the ball.

“By knowing what certain guys like, what they’re comfortable with, what they can execute the best, it’s not affecting the offense,” Durkin said. “As coaches and play callers, it’s about knowing what each guy likes if they’re in the game. But we’re not running separate offenses based on the [quarterback] and affecting the whole team and all of the guys around him. The main thing is tailoring what we can do best as a whole offense.”

And the Terps offensive tailor happens to be Bell, who has a good idea of what he has to do when each quarterback is under center.

“From a concept standpoint, we’re not going to get too far away from the system,” Bell said. “It’s just making it fit for those guys. When it was Pig, it was a little bit more of an athletic version. When it was Kasim, it was just as athletic but there was a little bit more of a premium on the dropback game. When it was Max against Minnesota, we took away some of the run aspect from the quarterback and tied it to some different guys in the run game. When it’s Caleb, you’re probably back to a little bit more of a blend of Kasim and Pig.”