Mark Richt sticks with QB Malik Rosier. And here’s what he said about his play-calling
Mark Richt needed less than 48 hours after the Miami Hurricanes’ road loss to the Boston College Eagles to decide on his quarterback for Miami’s next game against the Duke Blue Devils. Even after only scoring 14 points in a second straight loss, the Hurricanes will roll with Malik Rosier as their starting quarterback, Richt announced during his Sunday teleconference.
“Malik is the starter,” Richt said matter-of-factly when asked if he already knew who would start Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium. The coach then elaborated on his decision by returning the same talking points he’s used since naming Rosier the starter Oct. 17.
“Like I’ve said a lot of times, I feel like he can handle the game plan the best right now and gives us the best shot,” Richt said. “If that changes, then that will change. That’s where we’re at right now.”
Miami’s quarterback situation has been particularly uneven for most of the past month. The Hurricanes (5-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) benched Rosier in favor of N’Kosi Perry last month, and the redshirt freshman quarterback guided Miami to wins against the North Carolina Tar Heels and Florida State Seminoles before being pulled early in the Oct. 13 loss to the Virginia Cavaliers.
Richt announced Rosier as the starter a few days after the redshirt senior played the majority of the Hurricanes’ loss to Virginia. While Richt said Perry would likely get in the game against Boston College, Rosier played quarterback for its entirety, going 19 of 36 for 150 yards and a touchdown, with two interceptions. Rosier also ran for a team-high 71 yards on 14 carries.
On Sunday, Richt reiterated his desire to get Perry some more game action, though he didn’t say when.
Duke, also in UM’s Coastal Division, is 5-3 overall and 1-3 in conference play.
“I think we’ll see Kosi again before the season’s over,” Richt said. “How much depends on how practices go and all that, and it depends on how games go, as well, but we definitely want to continue to get him in the game and continue to get him better. I didn’t do it last week, but don’t be shocked to see him this week.”
On Monday, Richt said he had seen the video on social media, which showed Perry in a car with wads of money on his lap. The coach indicated the issue had “been addressed” internally and Perry was eligible to play against Boston College.
Neither quarterback has been overwhelmingly more productive than the other this season. Perry still leads the team with 11 touchdown passes and has been more productive than Rosier in terms of yards per attempt. Rosier has been the more effective runner, leading the team with six rushing touchdowns.
But with Rosier at the helm, Miami’s offense has hit an almost unprecedented slump for the Richt era. The Hurricanes have scored 14 points or fewer in back-to-back games for only the second time since Richt took over in Coral Gables ahead of the 2016 season. The only other time came to wrap up ACC play last year, when Miami scored 14 against the Pittsburgh Panthers in the regular-season finale, then managed only three against the Clemson Tigers in the ACC Championship Game.
Rosier’s first half against the Eagles on Friday was the best evidence for why Richt trusts the veteran. The senior completed eight of his first nine passes to help the Hurricanes score two touchdown in the first 26 minutes. For the final 34 minutes, Miami crossed midfield only once.
Richt also was asked Sunday about the progression of true freshman quarterback Jarren Williams and if the coach anticipated getting Williams in a game. Williams, who played sparingly against Savannah State, can play three more times without losing his redshirt.
“I think all those things would be great,” Richt said. “First of all, I think he’s progressing because we do get him reps in practice. Like I said, a lot of times the No. 3 quarterback doesn’t get many, if any, reps during practice. But we’ve continued to give Jarren reps because we like what we see and we like his progression.
“I’m mostly thinking what it takes to win the game more so than trying to manage whether a guy gets some snaps in the game or not with the new redshirt rule. But if an opportunity arises for that situation obviously there’s no reason to hold it back. But I’m not thinking that far down the road right this minute.”
Regarding his play-calling, which many have criticized as uncreative and repetitive, Richt said coaches will stick with what they’ve been doing.
“We all as a staff put our game plan together. It’s a joint effort,” Richt said. “There are certain plays that we like on first and second down, in the green zone as we call it, between the 20s. And then there are certain plays we like in third-and-short, third-and-medium, third-and-long. We rep all those plays. We all have confidence in them. Same thing in the red zone.
“And so, to a degree we’re just calling the plays that we’ve repped, that we have the faith and confidence in, that we worked against the looks we think we’ll see. So, it’s not really a situation of making stuff up in the middle of the game.
“We’re sticking to the plan [and] making adjustments if need be. But for the most part we’re calling the things that we all believe in. We just gotta do a better job of it.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2018 at 6:55 PM.