The addition of quarterback D’Eriq King to the Miami Hurricanes roster was made to provide more production from their signal caller and greater leadership on and off the field.
The transfer of D’Eriq King from Houston to the Miami Hurricanes in the offseason was a big addition to add more experience and production at quarterback. King will receive an opportunity to play against Power Five competition after competing in the American Athletic Conference the past four seasons.
King was intrigued with Miami Hurricanes tradition and signed after Rhett Lashlee was hired from SMU as the new offensive coordinator. Lashlee brings what he calls a Power Spread that the Hurricanes will run at a much higher tempo than they have played at recently. King’s skill set perfectly fits Lashlee’s offense.
King is the ultimate dual-threat QB with his ability to pass accurately or run on either designed plays or when the originally called play breaks down. King has quickly impressed the Miami coaching staff with his ability to read defenses and to coach the young Hurricanes players.
Miami cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph spoke about the ability King has shown to go through progressions in his reads and how he is like having a coach on the field during a post-practice zoom meeting last week after practice. King should provide Miami with their best leader at QB since Brad Kaaya left after the 2016 season.
"“D’Eriq goes through every single read…As you sit here and watch him, he’ll look at every progression and put his eyes in different spots. Very quickly, he can get the ball out to that spot. For an offense, that can be surprising to see a quarterback that’s not looking at you, and then just throw the ball your way.I think that’s a gift. I’ve seen it at the next level. And he definitely has that gift…But I’m more impressed about just his coaching ability. He is almost like a coach on the field. You’ll find him play after play jogging with someone talking about correcting or fixing something. So I think that attitude is great, and that is contagious.Once you get a whole offense or defense correcting each other, they’re coaching each other and the sky’s the limit.”"
King has already been named the starter for Miami in the season opener against UAB September 10. King being named the starter was expected and in sharp contrast to the QB battle last season between Jarren Williams who has since transfered, N’Kosi Perry and Tate Martell. Perry is expected to be the second team QB in 2020.
Miami had a very young QB unit in 2019. The addition of King greatly upgrades the experience and leadership for the Hurricnes QBs in 2020. As Rumph said King is like having a coach on the field. Long term, the addition of King should help Martell, Perry and true freshman Tyler Van Dyke to develop better at QB.