Hurricanes senior quarterback King has torn ACL, will undergo surgery
Miami Hurricanes quarterback D’Eriq King, who went down with a knee injury late in the first half Tuesday of UM’s Cheez-It Bowl loss, will undergo surgery for a torn ACL in his right knee, the University of Miami football program announced Thursday.
“A timetable for his return will be determined after surgery, but he is expected to be available for the start of 2021 fall camp,” the UM release said. The surgery will take place at the UHealth Sports Medicine Institute at the Lennar Foundation Medical Center.
King, 23, is a fifth-year senior who on Dec. 26, just three days before the injury, announced publicly that he will return to the Hurricanes in 2021 rather than enter the NFL Draft — the result of the NCAA allowing all players an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
King started all 11 games for the Hurricanes this season, throwing for 2,686 yards with 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions, while also rushing for 538 yards and
University of Miami quarterback D’Eriq King, who is ninth in the nation in total yards, tore his ACL in the Cheez-It Bowl and will undergo surgery.
four scores. He completed 64.1 percent of his passes, the second-best singleseason completion percentage in school history.
His 3,224 total yards as of Thursday were ninth in the nation.
“We are obviously disappointed for D’Eriq but we know he is in great hands with our medical staff,’’ UM coach Manny Diaz posted on Twitter. “D’Eriq is the leader of this football team and we know that he will approach his rehabilitation with the same tenacity that he has approached every facet of his game since he arrived on our campus. We can’t wait to see him back on the field leading our team in August.’’
King, the Hurricanes’ top leader who is not only extremely popular but among the most accomplished quarterbacks in the nation, reached out to Hurricanes fans at 4:33 a.m. Thursday with this short, upbeat message: “Thanks for all the texts and calls I’ll be fine!”
By 9 am. there were nearly 1,500 likes. By 11:30 that had grown to nearly 2,500.
That first post was shortly followed by King’s “I’m off social media for a while stay up,’’ with the “100” emoji, which was later deleted.
On Wednesday, the often introspective King had tweeted, “Sometimes I don’t know why but I won’t question him.’’
EMOTIONALLY TRYING 2020
Amid an inspiring career, King has had an emotionally trying 2020. He transferred to Miami from Houston last January, his father died in February, his mother was fighting breast cancer and with a strong family behind him, he has stayed stronger than one could have imagined.
“Yeah, it’s harsh,’’ Diaz said after the bowl. “In a year we’ve had so much adversity, and for a guy that does everything right. … He cares so much for our football team, and that’s who he is every day in our facility and in our locker room. He loves these guys he plays with, and I know it hurt him to not be out there with them.’’
King was 19 of 34 for
228 yards and two touchdowns in the Cheez-It
Bowl before injuring his knee. By the third quarter of the bowl he was wearing a large brace over his right leg and using crutches, back on the sideline cheering for his teammates.
PRAYERS FOR KING
“When I saw D’Eriq go down, first thing I did was I prayed for him,’’ said Canes tight end Brevin Jordan, who had a stellar bowl performance with eight catches for 96 yards and two touchdowns and said he hadn’t yet decided on his future in terms of whether to enter the NFL Draft. “I thank God for having him on this team and I asked for protection, that’s the first thing I did. Next thing, I gathered up the whole offense and said, ‘Yo, bring it in,’ and, ‘It’s next man up.’
“But when he went down it rattled us. That’s the energy D’Eriq brings to this team. That’s the passion he brings to this team. We rallied. We said, ‘All right, cool, you want our quarterback? Let’s go play football.’ ’’
UM, which ended the 2020 season 8-3 overall and 7-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, opens the 2021 season on Sept. 4 against perennial powerhouse and current No. 1 Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at MercedesBenz Stadium in Atlanta.
It remains to be seen what King’s backup, current redshirt junior N’Kosi Perry, will do in terms of his own future. Perry, who in previous seasons has started nine games for UM, replaced King in the bowl and had an impressive showing. Perry completed 19-of-34 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns. He could enter the transfer portal and likely start for another program, or stay at UM and run the offense should King need a longer recovery period — that is, if Perry beats out the younger, inexperienced, but talented scholarship contenders.
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE
On Thursday afternoon, King tweeted out a large chunk of an inspirational quote by former President Theodore Roosevelt.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.’’