‘That’s our starting quarterback.’ King of Miami ball runs, cuts, dazzles opening night
All eyes were on the King.
And all hearts had to be racing — or flat-out skipping beats.
Seven months and a week after lying on the Cheez-It Bowl turf with a blown-out right knee, Miami Hurricanes quarterback D’Eriq King pulled the ball on a read option and accelerated up Greentree Field, juking defenders in his wake, dramatically cutting at least twice on the knee, racing for a would-be touchdown Friday toward the end of the opening night of fall camp.
Teammates erupted with screams of joy. So did coaches, at least one gleefully levitating — despite being on the defensive side of the ball.
D’Eriq King was back, and after reconstructive surgery and rehab that will continue through the blockbuster opener Sept. 4 against Alabama, he knew what he needed to do.
“It’s crazy,’’ said King, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament and mensicus in that knee Dec. 29 and underwent reconstructive surgery Jan. 4. “Right before I pulled the ball, I was talking to my [physical therapist], Joe, and I was like, ‘I hope they give me a pull read so I can show you how I’m doing.’ I wanted to get out there and run around and just be me.
“Don’t worry about anything else. Just be me.’’
Who’s the starter?
That, he was, so much so that when coach Manny Diaz, who repeatedly has said that every starting spot is up for grabs, was asked, more or less unequivocally, if King would be the starter considering “all the health questions,’’ Diaz looked almost incredulous before saying, “Yeah, that’s our starting quarterback. That’s the only starter we have.
“It’s August 6th. He was without restriction It’s not my choice. He’s not going to let me not start him at quarterback. It doesn’t matter who else we put out there at quarterback. We’d have to call timeout because we’d have 12 on the field.
“He’ll be out there.’’
Granted, as Diaz also said, the Canes were “playing tag” for two hours Friday at Greentree. All quarterbacks, including backups Tyler Van Dyke and Jake Garcia, are prohibited from being touched during fall camp. But that’s no different from almost any other year.
Waiting to get hit
“Honestly, it’s the same for me every single year,” said King, a sixth-year senior who last season threw for 2,686 yards (64.1 percent completion) with 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions in his 10 1/2 games before the injury — not including 538 yards and four touchdowns rushing as his total yards ranked 11th in the nation for the 8-3 Hurricanes. “Play the last game and then I don’t get hit until the first game. I’ve been hit a lot in my lifetime, so I know what to expect.
“When I get out there, I’m going to cut it loose. I’m not worried about getting hit and all that.”
The opening play
Leading Canes receiver Mike Harley gushed about his close friend and teammate, despite giving him grief after King’s opening hitch pass to Harley wasn’t perfect. An animated Harley, who had 799 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in 2020, said with a smile that he catches “every ball,’’ no matter where it’s thrown. But he still exchanged some good-natured ribbing with King after what he deemed wasn’t a good enough throw.
“I’m like, ‘D’Eriq King, come on bud! Tighten up. You know you’re better than that!’”
Harley said that when practice was in the final team period and King dazzled with his dramatic play, Harley told him, “Yo, you were able to run?’
“He’s got that dog in him. He looks fast.”
King, as intense a competitor as he is, told Harley he felt he had “too many incompletions” Friday and that he needed to improve. “All great players hold themselves to a higher standard, so I respect that.”
King, as well as all the Hurricanes, was garbed in padless jerseys and shorts with a helmet for opening night, an NCAA mandate to ease into play. But he did what he needed to do Friday.
Hugging King’s knee was an unobtrusive elasticized covering.
“Are you going to wear a brace?” he was asked.
Forget the brace
“I’m not wearing no brace,’’ he replied. “Never.’’
“My knee feels fine,’’ he said. “Going through a real practice is still good for me. ...Obviously, the guys were extremely excited for me. ...Everything felt like normal.’’
King’s rehab regimen is anything but normal.
“Camp is a little different,’’ he said when asked to expound. “Obviously, we’re here all day. I usually get here around 6:30, get breakfast, then come here and immediately do rehab. Treatment and rehab — then meetings starting at 8. Meet for a while, then we get a break somewhere in the middle of the day. Then I get back to rehab for a couple hours. I try to get a nap in before we gotta be back in and eat lunch and go back to meetings and come to practice.”
Diaz’s nerves had to be flying when King made his defining run.
“I’ll be honest,’’ the coach said. “What was going to happen? So I’m standing there watching. I felt like there were a couple of times where he wanted to go. And I didn’t know what he was going to do. But it looked like he felt good about it, and he went down the field. That will be something that as the weeks go on, will help him with his confidence, which definitely helps us with all of our confidence.”
“You see the guy spin some of the throws in there...
“You’d have to ask him, but it looked good to me.’’
This story was originally published August 7, 2021 at 9:28 AM.
