Quarterbacks Looking to Close Spring Strong
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes entered spring practice with a talented group of quarterbacks looking to prove themselves to head coach Mark Richt.
Incumbent starter Malik Rosier entered the spring with a leg up on the rest, having the experience as a rising redshirt senior and coming off a 10-win season and an appearance in the ACC Championship Game and the Capitol One Orange Bowl.
“I like the fact that he knows, and everybody knows that he knows, what to do,” Richt said of Rosier. “That’s a huge part of leadership. If your quarterback knows what’s up and he makes the right check or he changes the right mike declaration, or he gets you in a better protection and can throw a touchdown pass or go from a run to a pass or a pass to a run, all the things that we need to do to help ourselves have the best play possible, he can do all those things. And that shows leadership. I had a guy named Charlie Ward; he hardly said a word. He just showed up every day and performed, and they all loved the guy and they all played for the guy. Offense, defense, special teams, the fans, the coaches, they all believed in him. People have got to believe in you for you to be a leader, and sometimes that’s all it takes.”
But redshirt freshmen N’Kosi Perry and Cade Weldon, as well as early enrollee Jarren Williams, were going to use every rep this spring to show Richt they are the best candidate to be under center when the Hurricanes open the 2018 season against LSU on Sept. 2.
“N’Kosi’s doing really well,” Rosier said. “As you can tell from the Spring Game, he’s very athletic – he can move around and make people miss. He’s an accurate passer. I still think the one on the sideline that he threw deep was a completion, so that was a great ball, I was running on the field telling him ‘great ball.’ And then Jarren, Jarren makes mistakes, but one thing about him is he is accurate. He’ll go to the wrong side, but he’ll throw a completion, which is freakish – you shouldn’t be able to do that, especially against our defense. And that’s the biggest thing about Jarren, he’s a very accurate passer. He’s young and once he learns, he’s going to be really good in the system.”
Richt has always preached about competition bringing out the best in players and Rosier is an excellent example of that. A year ago, he rose to the occasion and beat out Evan Shirreffs, Perry and Weldon for the starting job.
“He’s a fierce competitor,” Richt said. “And I’ll say this too, a year ago, by the end of the year, Weldon and N’Kosi, they’re redshirting. Everybody knows it. There are no redshirts now. We have Jarren who could possibly – I’m not even going to say that’s going to happen – but those other guys, there’s no way they will. They’ll be there competing the whole year long. Malik, I just could tell you, he functions better when he knows someone is competing right behind him. He just functions better, he practices better, he focuses better. Should it be that way? Probably not. I think that’s true for everyone, but that’s how he’s made up, so ok. Go compete. And if you need us to throw someone else in there, we’ll do it.”
Rosier believes he has had a good spring so far and has used his experience to put the offense in positions to succeed while facing Miami’s imposing defense. The redshirt senior still sees room for improvement in his game and is excited about the opportunity to get better going forward.
“I think I am doing fine,” Rosier said. “The biggest thing is communicating with these guys. There were a couple of times today that I killed plays that it was just something that I saw and Coach Richt told me ‘good job’. You know, N’Kosi [Perry] is coming along and Jarren’s [Williams] learning. I wish Cade [Weldon] could be out here because this is a great time for us to get reps and get more experience. But for me, personally, I think I am doing good. My accuracy rate needs to go up, but other than that I’m doing fine.”
Miami’s Spring Game featured a lot of defensive highlights and some offensive miscues, but Richt does not put those mistakes entirely on his quarterbacks. With Miami rotating so many players, mistakes are going to happen. But Richt believes the Hurricanes will identify the players they can count on and be ready to go when the 2018 season begins on the first week of September.
“Offensively, when we don’t self destruct and everyone does what they are supposed to do, we actually had good success on those plays,” Richt said. “When you’re playing 22 guys, 33 guys, that’s going to happen. You’ll have some missed assignments, and you’ve got some new guys. Like I told them, in the fall, we’ll play one unit. We’re going to play the unit that knows what to do and is tough and will play physical and can function well on a consistent basis. So if that’s 14 guys, then I’ll go no huddle and I’ll go as slow as I’ve got to go. If it’s 25 guys that are ready to rock and roll and play ball, then we may go with tempo and sub and get after it. But we as a staff are only going to play guys we can trust, that they know what to do and they’re physical and they’ll fight for this university.”
The quarterbacks enter the final week of spring practice looking to continue their progress in advance of Saturday’s final scrimmage. Regardless of who ends the spring atop the depth chart, Miami will enter fall camp with a talented group to choose from.
“I think they are all doing pretty well, so it’s really just a big race to see who gets the starting position,” running back Travis Homer said. I have faith in all of them.”
