Enos: Perry played with hurt shoulder
No update on which quarterback will start Saturday at Pittsburgh
CORAL GABLES — Miami Hurricanes offensive coordinator Dan Enos revealed on Monday that quarterback N’Kosi Perry had a separated shoulder when he left and went back into Saturday’s 28-21 overtime loss to Georgia Tech.
Enos let Perry’s injury to his left, non-throwing shoulder be known as he was analyzing his play and expressed how proud he was of the toughness Perry exhibited on Saturday.
“It’s tough to criticize a guy too much that has a separated shoulder and comes back in the game,” Enos said. “I can’t express enough the admiration that I have for his courage and his competitiveness and toughness. I have not seen that very much in my career. A guy that went through the hit he went through, the injury that he had, and there he was, playing, took off and scrambled one time.”
Perry suffered the injury on a third-quarter scramble up the
middle where he lowered his shoulder into a Georgia Tech defender for a 9-yard gain. Jarren Williams, Miami’s starter for the first five games who is dealing with an apparent shoulder issue of his own that the team is calling an upper extremity injury, relieved him for the remainder of the series.
Six offensive plays and a 14-play Yellow Jackets drive later, Perry was in for the Hurricanes’ next possession. The Georgia Tech drive took 7:58 off the clock.
Enos revealed the injury as he found himself harping too much on how there were instances where Perry watched the pass rush and missed open receivers downfield in his assessment of Perry’s play.
“That a guy’s looking at the rush, I can’t really fault N’Kosi too much other than the fact he was playing with an extreme amount of pain, trying to win a game for his team,” Enos said. “I have the utmost respect for guys that do that. We’ll live with a couple of mistakes that he made, but he gave our team a chance to win and proud of the way he competed and handled that injury like that. That’s big stuff right there.”
Perry was 16 of 28 for 188 yards, two touchdowns and a rushing score on Saturday. Williams was 1 for 3 for 12 yards and took a third-down sack in his brief appearance.
Neither Enos nor coach Manny Diaz had an update on which quarterback would start this upcoming Saturday at Pittsburgh. Diaz indicated that would likely be announced on Wednesday as both quarterbacks are recovering from injury. Williams was only available as a backup on Saturday.
“Jarren, I think he’s coming along great,” Enos said. “When he went in the game, did a really nice job. That’s a tough situation for him to go in, as well. Thought he handled it really well, and [Sunday] night at practice, thought he handled it really good. We’ll see how this week unfolds. We’re hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that both guys will be available for us.”
Poor tackling: Miami missed 29 tackles on Saturday, according to Pro Football Focus, which assisted Georgia Tech to hold the ball for two separate eight-minute drives in a second half that saw neither team score.
“That was the biggest letdown of watching Saturday, watching our defensive performance,” Diaz said.
Defensive coordinator Blake Baker attributed it to poor technique and pad level.
“We were way too high in our pad level and especially against a big back [in Georgia Tech’s Jordan Mason], but it doesn’t matter what back you’re tackling,” Baker said. “If you tackle him around the shoulder pads, it’s going to be hard to get them down — and then times where I thought we just stopped our feet, especially in the hole.”
Added Diaz: “That tolerated here.” simply will not be
Rotating Donaldson out: Diaz said rotating junior left guard Navaughn Donaldson, Miami’s most experienced offensive lineman, in and out of the game with redshirt freshman John Campbell was a byproduct of Campbell’s improvement and giving Donaldson a breather.
“We think John Campbell’s getting better and is a guy that can function as a tackle and as a guard,” Diaz said. “If John Campbell’s a guy that’s becoming a better and better player, a guy that can take snaps, having him fill in for Navaughn, trying to keep more guys fresh so we can go hard is an advantage to all our guys.”
Walk-on Ragone filling in: Both Diaz and Baker had positive remarks for walkon weakside linebacker Ryan Ragone, who filled in for injured Michael Pinckney in a depleted linebacker corps against Georgia Tech.
Diaz said playing Ragone instead of freshman scholarship linebacker Sam Brooks was due to Brooks working at middle linebacker, as Shaq Quarterman’s backup. He has not been expected to learn the weakside linebacker, or Will, position yet.
Other notables: Enos was impressed with Cam’Ron Harris’ work filling in as the team’s No. 1 running back as DeeJay Dallas went down with an apparent knee injury, but he also said he envisions thirdstring running back Robert Burns getting more involved, partially dependent on Dallas’ status.
“It depends,” Enos said. “I don’t know how the game’s going to go. I don’t know how DeeJay’s going to be, so obviously, we got to get the other guy ready to roll.”
The kickoff time for Miami’s Nov. 2 rivalry matchup against Florida State in Tallahassee won’t be known until Sunday, but it will either be a 3:30 p.m. or 7:30 kickoff on ABC or ESPN, according to an ACC release.