Just wondering: Can anyone convince Miami QB D’Eriq King to return for another season?
Quick question: With the NCAA allowing players to return next season without it counting against their eligibility, can anyone convince Miami graduate transfer quarterback D’Eriq King to return to the Hurricanes?
The No. 11 Hurricanes (6-1, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) might be eternally grateful if the answer is yes — or at minimum completely thrilled for one more go-around while younger teammates try to emulate the leadership role King so eloquently and decisively inherited, according to Canes coaches and players, the moment he stepped onto the University of Miami campus from Houston last January.
Hard to believe they could emulate a performance like the one King had Friday night in the Canes’ exhilarating 44-41 comeback victory at North Carolina State. King’s numbers: 31 of 41 (75.6 percent) for 430 yards and five touchdowns to four different pass-catchers, with another 105 yards rushing on 15 carries.
When asked what King has meant to the UM program, senior Mike Harley, who cried after the victory (in which he contributed eight catches for 153 yards and two touchdowns, including the winning 54-yard catch), said, “He has meant everything. You all see it every Saturday, and we see it every day.
‘That guy Miami needed’
“D’Eriq King, man... He’s just a great leader. He’s that guy. He’s that guy Miami needed.’’
According to @ESPNStatsInfo, King “became the first FBS player to throw for 400 yards and five touchdowns and also rush for 100 yards in a game since...King in 2018. This is the sixth time a QB has hit those numbers in a game in the last 10 seasons, and King is the only player to do it twice.’’
Tight end Will Mallory, who had 78 yards receiving and UM’s first touchdown Friday, said King is the reason UM won.
“I think all you guys saw it, too,’’ Mallory said. “D’Eriq King [was] ready to play. He came ready to lead us and that’s exactly what he did... The preparation he put in this week, the commitment he has to this team is exactly why we got that W.”
And this from redshirt junior starting defensive end Jaelan Phillips, the No. 1 recruit in the nation when he left high school to originally play at UCLA: “I can’t even express how much D’Eriq means to this team. For him to keep his composure like that and lead us to victory, I just have to give him the utmost praise. I can’t be happy enough that he is part of our team.’’
Before the season, King, as truly humble and calm and intensely focused throughout games as seemingly any competitor anywhere, was asked by the Miami Herald in a private interview about the possibility of his return given the extra year being offered in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“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.’’
King’s painful journey
After seven games, King has completed 143 of 224 passes (63.8 percent) for 1,831 yards and 16 touchdowns, with four interceptions. This year alone he has gone through his mother’s ultimately successful fight with breast cancer, his father’s sudden death of a heart attack and the move from his family in Houston to Miami.
It’s his father, he said, who has made him so level-headed, so humble.
“When I was playing little league [football], my dad was coaching,’’ King said. “I scored a touchdown and celebrated and he kind of got on my pretty bad and ever since then I was always just trying to [not] get too high, [not] get too low... If you let one play beat you twice or even one good play following up on it — you got to just play the next play.
“...Coach Diaz does a great job of preaching that, and I knew it was going to be a four-quarter game. Coming here to NC State, they’re wearing all-black [uniforms] Friday. I knew it was going to be a dogfight as soon as we got here, so I just wanted to keep playing, keep my guys focused and celebrate after the game.’’
King said all he ever wanted to do was come to UM and be part of “a great team.’’
‘When I’m done’
“I don’t want to put it all on me,’’ King said, “but I probably will look back on all that when I’m done playing here. We have a great team and I just wanted to come in here and be a leader, not try to put up great numbers. I mean, of course I want to, but it’s just about winning games. It’s all I care about. I just want to win as many games as possible and help lead these guys.”
When asked if his relationship with Harley has grown, King called Harley “a great guy’’ and said on the bus ride from the hotel, Harley texted King “and told me he loved me, and ‘Let’s go be great tonight.’ And he did that. Me and Mike both being older guys, it means a lot to us. We don’t have all the time in the world top play here, so we want to get it going now.
“We have a strong, strong brotherhood on this team, man. I’m excited to be a part of it.’’
Next: Virginia Tech
The Hurricanes, who finally rid themselves of the bye-week syndrome with their first win after a bye week or bowl-prep weeks since Sept. 23, 2017, now has as many wins as they did all last season. Their next mission: Prepare to travel to Blacksburg, Virginia, to face the Virginia Tech Hokies at a kickoff time that was expected to be announced after this weekend’s games. The Hokies (4-3, 4-2) fell 38-35 to undefeated independent No. 25 Liberty (7-0) Saturday.
▪ The Hurricanes were without 11 players declared by UM as “unavailable” for the NC State game for undisclosed reasons, though the Herald learned that several of them, if not most, were out because of COVID-19 related issues. Miami will release its next list of those unable to play, an hour before the Virginia Tech game.
“This is college football in 2020,’’ coach Manny Diaz said. What we had to do this week in practice with the guys out... We had practice on Friday with about 70 guys [of more than the usual 100] at practice. We had graduate assistants pretending to be defensive backs for the scout team. We had kickers playing wide receiver against our defensive scout team because we are just so thin now.’’
