Richt’s picks
Weldon, Perry separate themselves behind Rosier
Weldon and Perry top UM backup QB options.
CORAL GABLES — Over the course of the past three weeks as the eighth-ranked Hurricanes have worked their way through preseason camp, the competition to be Malik Rosier’s backup has featured three young quarterbacks.
With Miami’s season opener less than a week away, it seems that race has narrowed to two signal callers.
During a radio appearance with 560-WQAM’s Joe Rose on Monday morning, coach Mark Richt said that redshirt freshmen Cade Weldon and N’Kosi Perry have separated themselves from freshman Jarren Williams in the competition to be the Hurricanes’ No. 2 quarterback.
Though it’s not exactly an unexpected move — Weldon and Perry have been on campus longer than Williams, have worked with Miami’s scout teams for more than a year and have been trading second-team reps throughout camp — Richt’s decision may give the Hurricanes’ quarterback room a bit more clarity as Miami shifts into gameweek mode ahead of their Sunday night season opener against LSU at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“I’ll narrow it down to Weldon and N’Kosi right now,” Richt said, when asked about the No. 2 quarterback job during his weekly appearance with Rose. “Jarren Williams is really making a lot of progress, but he’s a true freshman and I don’t think he’s quite ready for this moment. When his day comes, he’s going to be special, I’ll tell you that. Right now, it would be considered a tight race between Weldon and N’Kosi.”
Ahead of the season opener, only one quarterback on the Hurricanes’ roster — Rosier — has any kind of experience in a college game.
Weldon and Perry both redshirted and it was Evan Shirreffs — who has since trans-
“Right now, it would be considered a tight race between Weldon and N’Kosi.” Mark Richt, UM head coach
ferred from Miami — that served as Rosier’s backup last season.
Still, Richt and quarterbacks coach Jon Richt have indicated they’ve seen progress from the redshirt freshmen quarterbacks, with Mark Richt noting that Weldon got some snaps with the No. 1 offense Wednesday during Miami’s final scrimmage of preseason camp.
“So just as we rotate things around, just happened to be the day where Weldon got a couple plays and actually did a good job,” Richt said.
Weldon, a former threestar prospect who threw for more than 3,100 yards as a senior at Tampa’s Jefferson High, has long known Mark Richt. Weldon’s father, Casey, played for Richt when he was offensive coordinator at Florida State under Bobby Bowden.
Perry, meanwhile, was a four-star prospect out of Ocala’s Vanguard High, where he earned FHSAA Class 6A Player of the Year honors after throwing 24 touchdowns and completing 64 percent of his passes as a senior.
The Hurricanes aren’t the only team in Sunday night’s AdvoCare Classic facing questions at quarterback, another topic Richt discussed Monday.
While LSU coach Ed Orgeron hadn’t publicly named the Tigers’ starter ahead of Richt’s appearance with Rose, the Miami coach said he believed Orgeron would ultimately settle on Joe Burrow, an Ohio State graduate transfer over sophomore Myles Brennan.
Hours later, LSU announced that Burrow — who spent three years at Ohio State — had indeed won the starting job.
Asked about preparing for an opponent without knowing for certain who would lead the offense, Richt told Rose it’s critical to study what a team’s offensive coordinator — in this case Steve Ensminger — has done in the past.
“As always, you have to watch tape of what that coordinator did in the past and just figure that, again, the majority of what he’s going to do is probably going to stay the same,” Richt said. “There will be some wrinkles, obviously. And you’re going to play to the strengths of your quarterback. If it’s a super mobile guy, then you can expect certain QB run aspects. If he’s not, you can expect more of a power running game, play-action pass, more pocket stuff. We think it’s going to be Burrow, the graduate transfer from Ohio State, but we’ll see.”
Richt’s inclination proved correct.
At Ohio State, Burrow played behind former Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett. Burrow appeared in 10 games during his time in Columbus, completing 29 of 39 passes for 287 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 53 yards and another score.
As to what else he’s been able to learn about LSU, Richt said he and his staff have taken advantage of the information the Tigers have released since the end of the 2017 season, including tape of the LSU spring game.
“They did televise their spring game, so you can at least look at their personnel to get a good idea of who’s going to be playing where in their base offense and base defense,” Richt said. “That can be helpful. And a little bit of what they do, schemewise, too. They’ve got to do something and mostly, it’s their bread-and-butter things they like the most. And then you’d be surprised what you can glean from some of the articles that you read, from guys wanting to brag about how much different they are on defense, or how many different blitzes and twists and stunts. … You get a little feel that they may do something a little bit more than they did a year ago. You just try to get as much as you can by reading these articles right now.”
Here’s more highlights from Richt’s conversation with Rose:
The coach reiterated what he’s said throughout much of camp, which is that Rosier has shown improvement both on the field and in the locker room since the Hurricanes closed 2017 with
three straight losses.
“Because he knows what he’s doing and he knows what his footwork and ballhandling is, it helps a lot. I think the greatest improvement he’s made is his deepball throws. We’ve got to be able to do that. So many people play man coverage now, you’ve got to try and take some shots ...
“One thing is, at the end of every spring, we have our exit meetings and we talk about self-evaluation with those guys and we evaluate them ourselves, give them goals and things of that nature for the offseason. One of the questions I ask everybody is ‘Who do you think the leader is? Who do you think the leaders are?’ and I just kind of tally-up the votes just to see what the players think and Malik was one of the top-four vote-getters. He’ll be one of our captains. I think it was Shaq Quarterman, Jaquan Johnson, Tyler Gauthier and Malik, so his teammates believe in him and he got voted into the captainship for that first game.”
Richt once again had
praise for running back/fullback Trayone Gray, who has worked himself into the third rotation at running back behind Travis Homer and DeeJay Dallas.
A redshirt senior, Gray has dealt with injuries and has shifted positions throughout his time at Miami. But his performance in camp has impressed teammates and coaches.
“The guy who’s really had a great camp is Trayone Gray, ‘Choc.’ He’s the next back in the game,” Richt said. “He’s a great runner, pass protector and really, one of the biggest morale guys on the team.”
Asked which freshmen could see a significant amount of playing time against LSU and beyond, Richt noted tight ends
Brevin Jordan and Will Mallory will be among the young players to get on the field early and often, particularly after veteran tight end Michael Irvin II was hurt in camp.
“The tight ends are going to play and play a bunch,” Richt said.