Podcast: D’Eriq King’s knee, wide receiver intrigue and other takeaways from Miami camp
Training camp began for the Miami Hurricanes on Friday and the night ended with an exhale.
D’Eriq King, the quarterback Miami has all its hopes for the 2021 college football season tied to, got through his first practice of the year intact.
Actually, he looked downright great, going through his dropbacks cleanly and even shimmying his way through the defense for a touchdown run in his return from offseason surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
The Hurricanes were impressed — it was evident from the shouts and cheers by virtually everyone out at Greentree Practice Fields after he planted his foot cleanly, and glided into the end zone — and so is the Eye on the U podcast.
On the first episode of the new season, David Wilson and Susan Miller Degnan, the Miami Herald’s Hurricanes beat writer, break down King’s return from his torn ACL and what the first few practices might tell us about the upcoming season.
There are still plenty of questions left for King to answer this year, but he answered every one he could in the first week of fall camp.
While King is the center of attention, Miami has opened up parts of four practices to family, guests and reporters, which meant a chance to get an early sense of how the depth chart looks, what the freshmen are doing and who might be poised for breakout seasons.
Key takeaways from the first week of camp include wide receiver Key’Shawn Smith and Xavier Restrepo emerging as contenders to start, offensive lineman Jalen Rivers taking the early lead at left guard, and freshmen Romello Brinson, Brashard Smith, Elijah Arroyo, Leonard Taylor and James Williams all looking like candidates to earn early playing time in Coral Gables.
As always, please continue to rate, review and subscribe because we’re coming with new episodes every week throughout the season. The Hurricanes’ season-opening meeting with the Alabama Crimson Tide is less than a month away.
