Miami Hurricanes will have a QB competition for Independence Bowl

Even with vast improvement from 2018 to ’19, the Miami Hurricanes will continue to have a quarterback battle for who will start against Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl December 26.

Manny Diaz has stated throughout the Miami Hurricanes 2019 football season that Jarren Williams is his quarterback. This has been the mantra that Diaz has preached since Williams was named first-team QB in August. Diaz continued to say this throughout the season even with N’Kosi Perry playing extensively.

Miami was able to move the ball through the air for most of the season until Perry and Williams struggled in the Miami Hurricanes season-ending losses to Florida International and Duke in the final two games of the season. Miami enters the Independence Bowl 42nd nationally averaging 257.2 passing yards per game.

Miami is 52nd in passer efficiency, but Miami plummetted to 75th in completion percentage due to the anemic performances by Perry and Williams against the Blue Devils and Panthers. Perry only played against Duke, but they combined to go 30-62 for 391 yards with three TDs and three interceptions in the last two games.

The shuffling at QB went contrary to what Diaz said during the 2019 offseason and during summer training camp. Diaz and his staff, particularly offensive coordinator and QB coach Dan Enos seemed committed to avoiding the QB controversy that occurred during the 2019 season under Mark Richt.

"“We are going to see what happens in practice, It will be [based on] a performance of everything in the month of December—academic performance, dependability of doing the right things off the field, and all those type of things.We will get a sense of that as we get through this week and get a sense of that with the guys practicing in Miami and then put a plan to go forward in Shreveport.”"

Diaz’s comments are somewhat vague to judge and yet all-encompassing at the same time. Any quarterback of a major college football team needs to be a leader on and off the field. That is both by example and vocally expressing his expectations. Perry has done a far better job of that after a year of sharing the position in 2018.

On the field, Williams produced at a much higher level for the majority of the season. The redshirt freshman finished the season completing 62.7 percent of his passes for 2,093 yards, 8.2 yards per attempt, 19 TDs and six interceptions. Perry completed 55.6 for 993 yards  6.9 YPA, eight TDs and two interceptions.

When Miami’s offense was playing well this season they connected on multiple big plays against Florida State and six TD passes against Louisville. Miami sputtered the final two weeks in the losses to FIU and Duke. The offensive inconsistency was frustrating after Diaz fired the entire 2018 offensive coaching staff.

He spoke about what the Miami football program needs to do to curb their offensive inconsistencies of the last two seasons heading into 2020.

"“What we have looked at on offense is what are the reasons for our inconsistencies and let’s evaluate those things and let’s put ourselves in the best position to win this bowl game.Right now we are focusing on recruiting and then it is about getting our guys in the best position to play in Shreveport and then we will go from there. Let’s finish the season and get a plan together to play our best in the bowl game and let’s see what we like and what we didn’t like and then go from there.That is what we owe the players and what we owe the program”"

Miami will reconvene to practice for the Independence Bowl next week. With two weeks extra of practice, the Hurricanes will have a chance to work on fixing the offense some for 2020. Both Perry and Williams are expected to return next season. Perry could decide to transfer. They both have a lot to tweak.