King now in full QB mode
D’Eriq King was sitting on the bench when he received the message.
Mason McClendon, a backup quarterback on clipboard duty, overheard on the headset that the University of Houston was going to make a change at quarterback.
“You’re in the game now,” King recalled McClendon telling him. “I didn’t get any reps (that week in practice). I was still in receiver mode.”
On Oct. 28, 2017, the King era at quarterback began for the Cougars. And it was just about as pressurepacked a situation as one could imagine for a sophomore with five career passing attempts.
Early in the first quarter. Scoreless game.
On the road against un-
beaten and nationally ranked South Florida.
“The feel of the locker room at halftime,” UH head coach Major Applewhite said. “The competitive confidence our team felt by him taking snaps, and obviously his playmaking ability and everything you see on the field, is what we thought he could do. He had the opportunity to capture the team, and he did.”
King engineered a fourth-quarter comeback, hooking up with Courtney Lark for a 30-yard completion on fourth-and-24 and scoring a pair of touchdowns, including the game-winner with 11 seconds left, for a 28-24 upset of the Bulls.
Almost a year to the day, King and the Cougars once again are set to face an unbeaten and ranked South Florida at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at TDECU Stadium. UH (6-1) holds a one-game lead over SMU in the American Athletic Conference West Division, while the No. 21 Bulls (7-0) are in a tight race with No. 10 Central Florida and Temple in the East.
While the status of All-America defensive tackle Ed Oliver, who could miss the game with a bruised right knee, is the headliner, King’s emergence as one of the nation’s most productive quarterbacks has been the biggest development for the title-hungry Cougars this season.
“It’s kind of been crazy,” King said of the past year since he took over the quarterback job. “It’s been all-around good. Just from last year, to where I was at to where I am now, is a big difference.”
For starters, King and Houston went through an offensive transformation in the offseason when the Cougars hired Kendal Briles and installed a more up-tempo, vertical offense. The results: UH is averaging 48.7 points and 555.3 yards, second and third, respectively, in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Much of the offensive success has to do with the progression of King, who has completed 63.5 percent of his passes for 1,984 yards with 23 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He also has a team-high nine rushing touchdowns.
Some other notable achievements this season:
• King has been responsible for 32 touchdowns and an average 27.7 points per game that leads the nation.
• He joined Marcus Mariota (Oregon) and Geno Smith (West Virginia) as the only quarterbacks in the last 20 years with 25 touchdowns and no more than three turnovers in the first six games of a season.
• He is eighth nationally with an average 323.6 yards total offense per game.
• He was named AAC offensive player of the week after completing 25 of 38 passes for 413 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for another score in last week’s 49-36 victory at Navy.
“What he’s done from that point (last season) on is where all the credit goes,” Applewhite said. “How hard he’s worked, the time he’s put in with coach Briles and his teammates and continuing to strengthen his leadership role. He’s a tough, fierce competitor, and you have to have that at quarterback.”
King, who is 8-3 as UH’s starter, credits his work with Briles to learn the Cougars’ new system.
“I’m still learning it,” he said. “I’m having fun right now.”
South Florida coach Charlie Strong offered praise to King this week, comparing him to former record-setting Bulls quarterback Quinton Flowers.
“This year, he’s so comfortable in the pocket now,” Strong told reporters in Tampa. “He can make the throws, and then he’s good enough where he can beat you with his feet.”
After watching his defense surrender 197 yards and two touchdowns to Connecticut quarterback David Pindell last week, Strong had a warning.
“(King) will rush for about 500 yards if we don’t watch him.”