King’s historic performance a great sign for UM offense
Miami Hurricanes quarterback D’Eriq King’s Friday night performance in the victory over North Carolina State was historic. He was the second Miami quarterback to throw for 400 yards and five touchdowns in a game and first in school history to rush for 100 yards in a game.
UM offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee on Monday said he was pleased to see King’s deepball passing reach the level it did after progressively trending in that direction since the entire Miami offense was locked down against Clemson on Oct. 10.
“D’Eriq can throw a really good deep ball,” said Lashlee of King, who was one of three Hurricanes to earn ACC weekly honors on Monday, along with receiver Michael Harley and defensive end Jaelan Phillips. “Y’all have seen it the last three games. Even in the Pittsburgh game, when we weren’t hitting them, he was throwing them well.”
Against Pitt, the deep throws were on target but still not connecting with receivers. In the win over Virginia that followed, the deep contested throws were connecting, and on Friday, it was on another level for him to go 31 of 41 for 430 yards passing and five touchdowns with 105 more yards on the ground.
After it was an element of the offense previously missing, Lashlee said he knew it was something that would take time to come together with King working in a new offense with new receivers and a new line after an offseason where much time together was lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It takes time in game situations with new receivers, in some cases young receivers, new system and not having the timing and continuity,” he said. “That’s why the passing game takes a little longer to get on the same page. I think, ever since the Clemson game, our guys have slowly gotten on the same page more and more. … I really think you’re just seeing D’Eriq’s natural ability on the deep ball, and I think him and the receivers are more in sync. I think they’ve gotten better. I think he’s gotten more confidence. I think it’s all kind of been a collective effort working together.”
Harley doubled down on his 10-catch, 170-yard game with eight receptions for 153 yards and two scores on Friday. Mark Pope went for 97 yards on six receptions, Dee Wiggins 77 on seven catches and tight end Will Mallory 78 on six. Pope, Wiggins and Mallory each caught a touchdown.
King’s best passing game was also his best rushing game, igniting a UM run game that was averaging 2.8 yards per attempt over the previous three games.
Junior running back Cam’Ron Harris’ 15 carries for 62 yards was his best game on the ground since the 52-10 win over Florida Sate in the Hurricanes’ third game of the season.
Jared Harrison-Hunte’s insertion
Miami defensive coordinator Blake Baker was frank when noting why redshirt freshman defensive tackle Jared Harrison-Hunte got the start and more reps than senior Jonathan Ford on Friday.
“When you look at the overall production, Jared had just been producing more,” Baker said. “As we all know, it’s a production-based business.”
Harrison-Hunte, after he had five tackles and split a tackle for loss, has 16 on the season and leads the team in sacks (three). Ford has just 10 tackles on the season without a sack, and with two in limited repos on Friday, Baker was pleased with his play.
“I thought Jon, actually, had one of his better games for the season for us last
Friday night,” Baker said. “Very encouraged with how he responded. It’s always they can go two ways. They can pout and sulk about it or they can bow their neck and come to work every single day in practice, which he did, and it showed. I thought he played probably his best game of the season.”
A chihuahua on the blitz
The biggest defensive play for the Hurricanes on Friday, before DJ Ivey’s interception that essentially clinched the victory, may have been nickel cornerback Te’Cory Couch’s third-down sack of N.C. State quarterback Bailey Hockman that preceded the winning drive.
Listed at 5 foot 10 and 172 pounds, Couch has been effective surprising opponents with nickel blitzes despite his size.
“Te’Cory has got a great confidence about him,” Blake Baker said. “He’s like a chihuahua, man. He thinks he’s a lot bigger than he is. You like that as a defensive coordinator. He’s really gotten slippery when he gets in there on the blitz, and a lot of that comes, in my opinion, from a feel for it and not having any fear once he goes in there.”
Couch has 15 tackles on the season with three pass breakups, a forced fumble and another quarterback hurry, aside from his one sack.
“Te’Cory’s playing at an extremely high level for us right now — at nickel and at corner,” Baker said. “Really proud of the way that guys competes every single day. You can see the growth over the span of the last year and a half and how much better he’s gotten.”