MIAMI -- Florida quarterback Rex Grossman will be on the bench to begin the FedEx Orange Bowl after missing curfew, and coach Steve Spurrier said Tuesday the Heisman Trophy runner-up may not play at all.

Spurrier said he reached the decision to start sophomore Brock Berlin on Sunday or Monday. He didn't think it would be a distraction for the Gators, 16-point favorites, as they prepare for Maryland.

"If we lose the game, you know what, you can blame it on me," Spurrier said. "If Rex plays and we lose the game, you're going to blame that on me, too. It doesn't matter. We're going to play the guys who we think deserve to play and who have earned the right to play."

Spurrier said Grossman was one of five Florida players who missed curfew last Friday, "and not just a barely miss, it wasn't like 5 or 10 minutes. It was a clear breakdown of team rules."

Spurrier said starting defensive lineman Bobby McCray and backup center David Jorgensen were the other scholarship players who missed curfew. McCray will be replaced in the starting lineup by Marcus Oquendo-Johnson. The other two players were walk-ons, who Spurrier said weren't going to play anyway.

"They'll be eligible to play in the game," Spurrier said of Grossman, McCray and Jorgensen. "Their coaches will put them in accordingly."

Spurrier, of course, is the quarterbacks coach.

Playing the role of bemused bystanders are the Terrapins, 15-point underdogs who have listened all week to the long list of Florida distractions: the Berlin-Grossman thing, tailback Earnest Graham's knee injury (he said he will play) and, of course, Florida's disappointment over not playing for the national title this season.

Terps coach Ralph Friedgen insists the circus that has become Florida football probably won't help his team.

"They're so talented, they can probably get away with it," he said. "We're very happy we're here and I can't control the way they feel. We've got to deal with our players, not theirs."

Spurrier said Berlin will make his first career start Wednesday when the No. 5 Gators play the sixth-ranked Terrapins.

"We'll give him an opportunity to play the game and go from there," Spurrier said. "I've got a lot of confidence in Brock. I've been watching him in practice and games for two years now, and it's worked out that he's going to get his chance."

One thing Spurrier doesn't want is to be considered lax on discipline. His rival, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, was roundly criticized when he let kicker Sebastian Janikowski play in the Sugar Bowl two years ago despite missing curfew.

"We've all got to be accountable to each other, especially the starting quarterback," Spurrier said. "Some coaches may not think it's a big deal. I think it is sort of a big deal."

Asked if Grossman would play at all, Spurrier replied, "Whoever starts always gets an opportunity. It doesn't mean they're going to finish it. But I never start a guy and say, 'If you screw up, you're out the next series.' It takes a bunch of screw-ups to take a guy out."

Spurrier's move angered Dan Grossman, Rex's father, who told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday night that "the punishment doesn't fit the crime."

According to Dan Grossman, Spurrier "changed the punishment" from how he had disciplined several players for being severely late for curfew one night earlier.

"The decision is highly questionable," Dan Grossman told the Sentinel. "Five nights before the FSU game there is no curfew. Why all of the sudden a strict military curfew five nights before a non-championship game?"

The latest turn of Spurrier's quarterback carousel is one of the most interesting of all, simply because Berlin is strongly considering transferring to the University of Miami after the season.

Berlin visited Miami in late December and, although he says he loves Florida, he is considering leaving because he wants a chance to play.

Before the revelation of Grossman's missed curfew, Spurrier promised Berlin some playing time in the second quarter of the Orange Bowl. The coach said this was not a last-minute ploy to keep Berlin at Florida, as some suspect.

"I can't worry about what other people think," Spurrier said. "I've got to do what's best for the team."

Berlin threw for 483 yards and nine touchdowns this season, exclusively playing in the second half, after games were out of reach.

"It's going to be very exciting, very fun," Nancy Berlin, Brock's mother, said from her home in Baton Rouge, La. "Brock has waited a long time for this."

Grossman told The Associated Press on Monday that he had missed the midnight curfew Friday night by a few minutes, but "I'm not sure what's going to happen."

Grossman threw for a school-record 3,896 yards this season and finished second in Heisman Trophy voting. Just as impressively, he started all 11 games, something no Florida quarterback had done since 1996, when Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman Trophy.

Part of the reason Dan Grossman said he was so upset was that several players who were late for curfew on Thursday night -- he did not know if his son was one of them -- were required to run sprints as punishment. But on Saturday, the day after Rex Grossman missed curfew, Spurrier called together Florida's seniors and asked if those who had been late the night before should play.

When the players said yes, Spurrier then said that those players, including Grossman, would not start.

"He (Rex) was not drunk," Dan Grossman told the Sentinel. "He was having a little fun on South Beach. This game is supposed to be a reward for these young guys. There is no excuse for Rex being late and I do believe in consequences, but he changed the punishment, and that's not right, not fair."

"We're all a little down and Rex is of course upset," Grossman said. "It's got to be a very humiliating and embarrassing situation for him and his family. But the punishment here is bigger than the crime."

Dan Grossman did not rule out entirely that his son would now apply for the NFL draft or transfer, but said the odds of that were "highly unlikely."

Information from The Associated Press and The Orlando Sentinel was used in this report.