The Miami Football team began spring practice with N’Kosi Perry leading the first-team offense in drills and D’Eriq King taking the first-team snaps once the seven-on-sevens started according to multiple reports.
The Miami football media was able to observe spring practice for about 25 minutes during the inaugural day on Monday. Various outlets reported that the Hurricanes rotated the quarterbacks as Miami began spring practice. The determination for taking the first reps this spring was on mat drills during offseason conditioning.
Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald reported that the QBs were lined up by the fence with redshirt junior N’Kosi Perry, Graduate transfer D’Eriq King, redshirt junior Tate Martell, redshirt freshman Peyton Matocha and freshman Tyler Van Dyke in that order. Perry began practice by throwing the first short passes to one receiver.
Once Miami began seven-on-seven drills against the defense, King began with the first-team offense followed by Martell. David Lake of Inside the U reported that it appeared that Miami wanted to rotate the QBs. King is the heavy favorite to be the starting QB with Perry and Martell battling for second team.
Martell should not be written off after barely playing last season. The one time Ohio State transfer is far better suited for the spread offense under new coordinator Rhett Lashlee than he was in the pro-style preferred by former offensive coordinator Dan Enos. Martell is going to have to work on his accuracy this spring.
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Perry also has to continue to improve his accuracy. He improved slightly from 50.8 percent completion rate as a redshirt freshman in 2018, to 53.5 in 2019 as a sophomore. Lake reported that all of the Miami quarterbacks had some positives during the first day of spring practice.
Lake observed that King threw a tight spiral while putting the ball in a good place for the receivers. Perry was observed throwing the best deep ball and passes outside the numbers as Lake stated. This spring is very different than 2019 when the Hurricanes had a wide-open competition to be the starting QB.
Manny Diaz said on the Joe Rose Show on Monday morning that none of the positions will be decided this spring. Miami needs King to cease the QB position as expected. He is the star of the offense and the Hurricanes are going to need him to play that way in 2020 to be successful.