Miami Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz and offensive coordinator Dan Enos stated during the final week of spring practice that quarterbacks Tate Martell, N’Kosi Perry and Jarren Williams will split the reps evenly during the spring game.
Manny Diaz made upgrading the play at quarterback one of the priorities for the Miami Hurricanes offense when he was hired to replace Mark Richt in December. Hiring Dan Enos from Alabama to be the offensive coordinator and QB coach was the first step in that process. Enos helped Alabama set national passing records in 2018.
Tate Martell has struggled at QB for Miami this spring after transferring from Ohio State. The highly touted former top recruit has been clearly outplayed by N’Kosi Perry and Jarren Williams. Martell might be starting to feel the pressure of being the player to elevate the Hurricanes play at QB.
Earlier this spring Martell said he is not the QB savior for the Miami Hurricanes football team. Annoiting Enos as the QB whisperer is also unfair. As Diaz has frequently said, this is going to be a process that takes time. Enos is installing a system that is new to the entire Hurricanes offense. Expect time for that to happen.
Saturday’s spring game will be critical for one of the three Miami signal callers to assert themselves heading into the remainder of the offseason. Diaz said that a starting QB will be named only if it’s obvious. Perry and Williams are clearly ahead of Martell. Neither has separated themselves from the other.
"“We said if it’s obvious we’d do it…What has become obvious is they’re all improving, but there’s no way they have enough at-bats where somebody can jump out in front of the pack.’ I get it.We all want to rank and assess or whatever…But no one right now is ready to play. So it doesn’t even matter what the ranking is right now. So to me, how do you get better? Reps. You’ve got to make sure everybody gets reps.”"
N’Kosi Perry working after practice today. pic.twitter.com/fWj9jNdVUN
— Gaby Urrutia (@GabyUrrutia247) April 18, 2019
Enos wants to see how his QBs handle success. He wants them to keep their intensity after a few good plays in a row. Perry often had concentration lapses last season. He had a sound 13 to six touchdown to interception ratio but needs to improve his 50.6 completion percentage drastically.
"“I’m not talking about game to game. I’m talking about play to play. A guy might have three or four good plays in a row and that causes him sometimes to relax a little bit. And then that leads to a mistake… They have to learn how to clear the mechanism, if you will, every play and play the next play.”"
If Miami is going reclaim the ACC Coastal Division title, one of the three QBs needs to emerge. The shuffling last season between Perry and the graduated Malik Rosier hindered the Hurricanes offense. They had no continuity. The abysmal passing game allowed opponents to pack the box and dare Miami to throw the football.
Enos brings a more diverse and dynamic offense than Richt did. If the QBs don’t perform consistently that’s all meaningless. The battle to be the starting QB will go into summer. Martell especially would help himself a lot by playing well on Saturday.
It would reduce the amount of outside noise, especially on social media and dissipate some of the pressure Martell would have in the next four months. A good performance would also help his confidence headed into the offseason.