Quarterback D’Eriq King to usher in new Miami era: ‘Leads big, plays big, loves big’
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College football 2020 season preview
The Miami Hurricanes hope the hiring of new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, coupled with dynamic transfer quarterback D’Eriq King, helps vault the Hurricanes back into the national picture during a season where a pandemic has already seen the Big 10 and Pac-12 opt out of competition during the fall. Plus, a look at the other teams across the state, as all seven Florida FBS teams will be playing.
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In late August, nine family members of Miami quarterback transfer D’Eriq King — ages 1 to 78 — squeezed into three rows of a United flight headed from Houston to Miami International Airport.
Mom Cassandra, declared cancer-free but still receiving preventative treatments for the November-diagnosed breast cancer that precipitated major surgery, would never miss the opportunity to surprise D’Eriq for his 23rd birthday. Same for grandma Mary Mitchell, brother Keshon, sisters Erica and Calandria, their fiancés and baby sons Nolan and Jeffery.
There too in spirit was King’s father and mentor Eric, who had succumbed to a fatal heart attack in February — about three weeks after the former record-breaking Houston Cougar arrived at the University of Miami. King said he had coincidentally flown to Houston for a family visit the night before his dad died, but had stayed at a friend’s house overnight before getting the morning phone call that changed his life.
“It was out of the blue, out of nowhere,’’ King told the Miami Herald of the passing of his dad, a former high school coach who owned a trucking company and started a successful youth league. Eric King coached D’Eriq and his older brother, Keshon, from toddlers to teenagers. “My dad wasn’t just a father to me and my brother and sisters, he kind of raised a lot of kids that didn’t have father figures in their lives. If guys needed a ride to practice, he’d pick them up. If they needed school supplies or clothes, he’d get them for them. He was a great dude.
“I miss him.’’
So, on Aug. 21, King’s nine loved ones waited outside his apartment while a previously informed friend told him, “Hey, let’s go out to get some Skittles.”
“Shocked,’’ is how Keshon, 24, described King’s reaction upon walking outside and seeing all nine shouting “Surprise!”
“His jaw dropped.’’
King, a fifth-year senior and the youngest of four children, has a family so close that they Face Time daily and participate in an endless group chat that is therapeutic for the son more than a thousand miles from home. Imagine their joy when days after their reunion, they learned they could attend his University of Miami home opener Sept. 10 against Alabama-Birmingham.
Every single game
“I’ve never missed a game of his. Ever,’’ said Cassandra King, 48, who is a maintenance planner for Shell Pipeline and has lived in the suburb of Pearland with her daughters and grandchildren since they moved back after Eric’s death. “This whole year has been out of whack for all of us. When D’Eriq was home during the spring [COVID-19 quarantine], we were grieving and constantly going to my husband’s burial site. I know he’s still hurting, but when he gets on the football field he doesn’t think about it as much.’’
Said Keshon: “Every single game since he was 4. Yes, ma’am, all of us. We were so excited when we saw the news on Twitter that fans would be allowed. We’ve already ordered our No. 1 jerseys.’’
And this from oldest sibling Erica, 29: “Miami fans are about to see how electrifying D’Eriq is “He’s that good — no, that great.’’
According to those who know him best, King has been that great since age 4, the first time he donned the silver and blue Oaks Dads Club Cowboys uniform and ran the spread — yes, the spread, just as he will for the Canes this season. “The ball,’’ recalled Keshon, who played linebacker, “was almost bigger than him. But he was real fast. Nobody could catch him.’’
“I was super excited putting on that Cowboys uniform,” King said. “I don’t remember much else that day.’’
Really, it’s true
Family bragging is one thing. Facts are another.
King, from Manvel, Texas, in high school broke then-future Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray’s Texas career prep passing touchdown record (117) with 126. Murray, now with the Arizona Cardinals, not only earned the 2018 Heisman, he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
The 5-10 Murray stands about a quarter-inch taller than King, who is nonetheless listed on his UM bio as 5-11 and 202 pounds — not unusual as college rosters routinely add an inch or so to players’ heights. The height factor has been a constant topic of conversation. But more on that later.
In 2018 at Houston, King set the American Athletic Conference record with 50 touchdowns — 36 passing and 14 rushing — his last two-and-a-half games with a torn meniscus in his right knee. He passed for 2,982 yards, with only six interceptions, and added 111 carries for 674 yards, a 6.1-yards-per-carry average.
One of King’s many eyebrow-raising touchdowns occurred against No. 21 USF during a 57-36 October 2018 victory in which he accounted for seven touchdowns on 551 total yards (419 passing, 134 rushing). When one of his linemen missed a block on fourth-and-7 from the 36-yard line and a defensive end came charging, King summoned his finest Houdini. After breaking at least four sure tackles, he broke into a seamless, but intense spin that propelled him another 20 yards into the end zone.
“Jaw-dropping crazy,’’ Keshon said. “The crowd went nuts.’’
It was USF’s first loss of 2018, and suddenly, King entered the Heisman conversation.
“He’s one of the best competitors, if not the best competitor, that I’ve ever been around,’’ then-Houston coach Major Applewhite said of King that day. “He plays his butt off. I mean, he jumps over people, he tries to run through people. He does whatever he needs to do.”
Mr. Versatility
The speedy, agile King, who said he hadn’t yet been timed at UM but was previously timed in the “low to mid 4.4s” in the 40-yard dash, also was a receiver and kickoff return specialist during his early Houston career. As a freshman in 2016, despite being a lifelong quarterback, he mostly played receiver, finishing with 29 catches for 228 yards and a touchdown. He became the first Houston player to throw a touchdown, catch a touchdown pass and return a kickoff for a touchdown in the same game (Texas State).
As a sophomore in 2017, King ran for a team-best eight touchdowns and started the final four games at quarterback (with three starts at receiver), leading the Cougars with 1,260 passing yards and seven passing touchdowns. He finished third on the team with 29 catches for 264 yards and two touchdowns.
Last year, after Houston started 1-3 under coach Dana Holgorsen, it was announced that King would play only four games and thus retain his eligibility for another season. Houston finished 4-8, and in what turned out to be King’s final game there against Tulane, he set the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision record for consecutive games (15) with a passing or rushing touchdown, breaking former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow’s record.
“It wasn’t really his decision to stop playing at Houston,’’ new UM offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, whom King often cites as a key reason he chose Miami, told WQAM. “It was something the coaching staff wanted him to do four games in. I know it was hard on him to not finish with his guys, but he’s a respectful kid. He’s going to do what the coaches ask.
“As time went on he decided he wanted to look around ...”
King’s Houston career numbers: 4,925 yards passing with 50 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, and 1,421 yards rushing with 28 touchdowns.
Transfer portal day
King said he still cherishes his alma mater Houston and all his friends from those days, but that transferring had been on his mind “for a long time’’ when he tweeted he had entered the transfer portal on Jan. 13 during the national championship game between LSU and Clemson. Applewhite was fired after the 2018 season and replaced by Holgorsen. King’s first Houston coach was Tom Herman, for whom he signed in February 2016.
“Watching that LSU game made me want more,’’ King said of the game in which Heisman winner Joe Burrow threw for 463 yards and five touchdowns. “I was already on the fence and then I thought during the game, ‘Man, I gotta get out of here.’ I wasn’t happy. I needed a fresh start.”
Yet even the fresh start has been marked by upheaval.
“My mom gets breast cancer, I transfer, my dad passes and then COVID,’’ King said. “It’s been tough, but I know I made a great decision to come to Miami. I love it here.’’
With last year’s inconsistent UM starter Jarren Williams transferring to Garden City Community College in Kansas, the door flung wide open for King to attempt to transform a 6-7 disappointment into a winner.
‘Stupid good’
King’s former Manvel High coach, Kirk Martin, coached quarterbacks at Syracuse University in 2018 and ‘19.
“He’s stupid good,’’ Martin gushed about his prized pupil, “one of the greatest kids I’ve ever coached — and I’m just talking about him as a human being.
“D’Eriq King leads big, plays big and loves big.’’
Martin described King as an astonishing all-around athlete whose throwing release is “so fast that you’ve got to pay attention to see it.”
“He’s not tall but he has a really strong upper body — freaking yoked, man,’’ Martin said of King’s pound-for-pound strength. “He runs through arm tackles and can get to the edge. He can take the top off of a defense but you couldn’t tackle him in a phone booth. He can drive the ball in a very tight window, but puts touch on it when needed.
“Y’all are going to love him. I promise you.’’
Yellow Dog day
The coach spoke of King’s state championship track meet in which King, who was part of three winning relay teams, opted to take the old “Yellow Dog’’ school bus instead of riding comfortably with family members.
“We get back and he’s the last person off the bus because he’s cleaning it and helping coaches unload the equipment,’’ Martin said. “That was his last act of service for Manvel High. I’m telling you that dude is special.’’
Martin said King “never threw temper tantrums,’’ but when he lost, like all great athletes, “it burned him up.’’ So much so, said his mother and brother, that he refused to remove his helmet after losses. When he was younger, they said, he’d sleep with it still on, shielding his pain.
“When he lost his last game in the high school playoffs to Katy High,’’ Cassandra said, “I had to literally go into the locker room and find him and say, ‘Look sweetheart, it’s OK. I know you didn’t want to lose but you have to change and come home.’ ’’
King earned his Houston undergraduate degree in health and is now working on his UM master’s degree in liberal studies. His “Plan B,’’ which most college football players are encouraged to consider regardless of how badly they yearn for the NFL, is “coaching or commercial real estate,’’ he said.
Yet despite the lurking threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, if he stays healthy and the revised season continues as planned, King’s “Plan A” is the NFL. Since all college players are being offered an extra year of NCAA eligibility in 2021 because of the pandemic, King said his decision on whether to return will be based on how many games he plays this season and, obviously, how he does.
“If I get maybe at least five games under my belt, I’ll see how I’ve done,’’ he said. “Either way I’ll have to talk to a bunch of people to see where I stand at the next level.”
Small for a QB
King has heard it for years: He’s “too small” to play quarterback in the NFL.
He told the Herald he stands just under 5-10 — “The last time I got measured I was 5-9 7/8 during summer workouts,” he said. “But if you produce on the field then nothing else should matter.
“I’ve been playing with 6-5, 6-6 linemen since high school. I’ve never had an issue seeing on the field. My daddy always told me, ‘If you’re 5-9, 5-10, you’ve got to do things 10 times better than a guy who is 6-3, 6-4, to even get the same shot.’
“I’ve never seen a lineman 6-6, 6-7 play [standing] straight up. They bend. I find my lanes just fine.”
King’s family believes opening night against UAB will be the start of another illustrious chapter in an already remarkable career.
“I know he’s ready to show everybody in Miami what he can do on a bigger stage,’’ his mom said. “I’m 100 percent sure he’s going to be a special quarterback this year — like he always is.’’
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 9:36 AM.
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