N’Kosi Perry Makes sense as Miami Hurricanes quarterback

The Miami Hurricanes fans have gotten their wish with N’Kosi Perry back as the starter for Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech. Perry’s play this season has been inconsistent at best.

Perry has played in seven of the Miami Hurricanes nine game this season. He became the starter against North Carolina after playing most of the game against FIU. Perry started and played the entire game against North Carolina and Florida State.

The Redshirt Freshman quarterback also started against Virginia but was pulled after throwing two interceptions in six passing attempts. Malik Rosier was re-inserted after sitting out against North Carolina and Florida State.

Rosier was reinserted as the starting quarterback against Boston College following Miami’s bye week. He was erratic against the Eagles. He got off to a good start but then cooled off. Rosier and Perry in last week’s loss to Duke.

Neither Perry or Rosier has given Miami any semblance of good play at quarterback this season. The Hurricanes are 103rd in passing yards per game, 96th in passer rating and yards per attempt and 116th in completion percentage. Miami needs far better production at quarterback no matter who is playing.

Most of Mark Richt’s comments about the quarterback play this season have been hyperbole. Thursday’s announcement was no different. Richt basically continued with essentially saying “whoever gives us the best chance to win will play.”

"“N’Kosi is going to start the game…I think both Malik and N’Kosi practiced well. I think both competed well. We’re just making the decision based on what we think gives us the best shot.”"

This is just more of the same that we have heard all season. Perry has now had a season and three-quarters to develop and he’s not playing near the level that a four-star quarterback should after a redshirt season. There is a multitude of reasons.

Perry’s accuracy is about the same as Rosier’s. We knew this with the play and the stats from the Spring game. In spite of that, many in the Miami Hurricanes fanbase wanted Perry in there. Now a lot of the blame has gone on Richt and his son Jon, Miami’s quarterbacks’ coach.

The Richts need to do something to develop quarterbacks better but Perry is clearly not progressing as he should. There have also been reports that Perry hasn’t learned the playbook as extensively as he should or that he’s not mature enough to be the starting quarterback.

Mark Richt was asked if Rosier will play at all against Georgia Tech and what went behind his decision to bring the redshirt Senior back against Virginia after having been benched for nearly three games.

"“That, I can’t just sit there and say for sure. We’ll start out with N’Kosi and see how it goes…It was really more of a reaction that I had to what was happening at the moment…It was more of a gut reaction. I’m not mad I made the decision. I can’t say there’s one thing in particular but at that moment in time I felt Malik could steady the boat a little bit. That’s why I did it back then.”"

Richt has stated since Rosier’s return that Miami needs maturity at the quarterback position. Yet, now he has inserted Perry back in as the starter. The entire handling of the quarterbacks this season is perplexing from a Head Coach that has made his reputation for his handling of quarterbacks.

"“I’ve gotten to see Kosi continue to grow as a quarterback and continue to keep his worth ethic up.He had a good week of practice and I feel like even the last game [a loss at home to Duke] that he was in, that very last drive of the game, if we don’t get a push-off [offensive pass interference that negated a UM touchdown] in the end zone, he took us down the field when we needed it the most.Of course he had some great moments in the Florida State game too when we needed it the most. He’s played some ball now. I think he’s more ready today.”"

Richt has the final say and he sees things in practice that we do not. That said his decisions are hard to understand. He’s in a tough position with how the quarterbacks have turned out the last two seasons, particularly this year.

Rosier played well enough last season to help the Miami Hurricanes win their first ten games. Since the Hurricanes ten-game winning streak to begin 2017, they are 5-7. That includes a win over FCS Savannah State and group of five teams Toledo in FIU. That leaves Miami 2-7 in their last nine games against Power Five schools.

Miami is essentially playing out the string. They need one more win to get to a bowl game. It won’t be anything to excite the Hurricanes fanbase. Miami needs to get quarterback figured out for 2019. Starting Perry is a good way to commence that.