Miami Hurricanes QB Jarren Williams will get better with Dan Enos’ criticisms

Miami Hurricanes offensive coordinator Dan Enos has high expectations for his players. In his weekly press conference Monday, Enos stated he sees quarterback Jarren Williams for how he can be, not how he is.

By most accounts Jarren Williams first collegiate start for the Miami Hurricanes was impressive. Williams finished 19-29 for 214 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Most of Williams success came in the first half. Williams was 12-14 for 158 yards, and his lone TD to Brevin Jordan right before halftime.

Enos had a perfect game plan for Williams on the Miami Hurricanes first drive of the game. Williams went 5-5 for 61 yards on the opening drive of the game to lead Miami to a field goal. Williams completed his first seven passes of the game as Enos kept the game plan simple and utilized short passes.

Sophomore tight end Brevin Jordan caught three passes for 43 yards on the opening drive. Jordan added two more receptions for 45 yards and caught Williams lone TD pass. Jordan led the Miami Hurricanes receivers with five receptions for 88 yards.

Williams looked good for his first collegiate start, but not to his offensive coordinator and QB coach. Enos has a reputation of being demanding on his players. The Miami QBs have the double of having Enos as their coordinator and position coach.

Enos is known as one of the best QB coaches in the country. Enos has been credited with already making a difference in the improvement of Williams Tate Martell and N’Kosi Perry.

Enos spoke about seeing the potential in Williams and not grading him based on where he is in his development. The first-year Miami Hurricanes assistant coach does not differentiate between a player’s first game and his 40th. It is a lot for the Miami QBs to live up to, but will serve them well in the long run.

"“I don’t see Jarren as he is; I see him how he can be…I think that’s what good coaches do. They have a vision of how guys are supposed to look and how they’re supposed to perform. I know Jarren is disappointed with some of the things he did, but certainly, he did some really good things, too.We just gotta keep our foot on the gas pedal, keep moving forward. The first thing is I grade guys on (whether) they played well enough for us to win or they didn’t. And he did not…We left a lot of plays on the field. Jarren left a lot of plays on the field. (I) was very, very disappointed from that standpoint.He did do some good things, but very inconsistent with his pocket posture, very inconsistent with his eyes, very inconsistent watching the rush at times, missing throws. It was frustrating from an offensive standpoint because we felt like our team played well enough to win and we didn’t hold up our end of the bargain.There’s a lot of plays on tape where we’ve got receivers running wide open, and either we can’t protect, or we can’t get the ball to them for some reason or another, the quarterback not making the right decision. And we’re very disappointed in that.But I thought one thing Jarren did do was compete. He showed some toughness, competitiveness. But certainly, we got to be way, way more consistent at that position if we want to beat good teams like we played Saturday.“He’s just got to learn how to throw the ball away…He had very, very poor ball security as well. We have two fumbles where he doesn’t have two hands on the ball.One of them he should have thrown the ball away and the other time he’s got his check down in the route wide open and doesn’t get it to him, and ends up holding it too long. So, again, did some good things, but there’s a lot of room for improvement as far as that goes.”"

The 10 sacks by Florida constantly put Williams under duress. The sacks are often to blame as a collaboration between the QB and the offensive line. The interior of the Miami Hurricanes OL guards Navaughn Donaldson and Delone Scaife and center Corey Gaynor performance well. Tackles Zion Nelson and John Campbell did not.

Miami will not face a defensive line as good as Florida’s during the rest of the regular season. All the concerns about the young Miami offensive tackles going up against an experienced and talented Florida defensive line came to fruition. Miami still needs better protection as the season progresses or it will be another disappointing year.

Enos was very disappointed in the big plays that were left on the field. The new Miami offensive coordinator felt the Hurricanes left points on the board.

"“From a schematic standpoint, we felt very, very good about our plan…We felt like we gave the kids the answers to the test. There wasn’t one thing Florida did that we were not prepared for.We knew when we got them in base (defense) what they would do. We knew when we got them in nickel (packages) what they would do. We knew about their double-end mug pressure.I mean, all that stuff was exactly what we had seen on tape. There was nothing new. Actually, they played a lot softer in the secondary than we thought they were going to play in the secondary.The first sack of the game, (Jeff Thomas is) wide open for a touchdown. Turn the tape on. He spins the guy around and he’s wide open for a touchdown. The third play, he’s wide open on a corner route and right tackle doesn’t grab the (defensive end).The second play of our second drive, we got him wide open on a deep over crossing route. (Our) left tackle (Nelson) gets beat. We got KJ Osborn open in the third quarter again on a big crossing route. Left tackle (Nelson) got beat again.We were very, very aggressive with how we called the game and that was by design. That’s what we said we wanted to do. Like I said, there’s a lot of plays out there we did not make and were certainly there for us to make.”"

Miami received some criticism for not being aggressive enough. Watching the game in the stadium or on television is far different from seeing the coaches film or video. The Hurricanes have a bye this week before traveling to Chapel Hill to play their ACC opener at North Carolina next week.

Miami should have had plenty of time this week to work on what went wrong against Florida. The Hurricanes will be able to watch North Carolina play South Carolina on Saturday. They will then be able to start focusing on the Tar Heels next week.