Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Richt says quarterback race still unsettled
CORAL GABLES — And now, for the Miami Hurricanes, the focus shifts to the offseason — and their season opener against LSU.
The Hurricanes wrapped up their 15 spring workouts on Saturday with a closed, situational scrimmage that gave most of Miami’s youngest players the opportunity to leave one last impression on Mark Richt and the rest of the coaching staff.
It also gave Miami’s quarterbacks — Malik Rosier, N’Kosi Perry, Jarren Williams and Cade Weldon — one last chance to state their respective cases as to which one of them deserves the starting job.
It’s a decision Richt reiterated Saturday he won’t be making any time soon.
In Saturday’s scrimmage, Rosier — who started all 13 games last season — was 3 of 4 for 82 yards. He threw the lone touchdown of the day, a pass to Darrell Langham that Richt described as the kind of play a savvy veteran is more likely to deliver, as opposed to a more inexperienced quarterback.
“It was one of those plays where if you know what you’re doing, you can make a play like that. It was a combo play, run or pass, certain looks you run it, certain looks you pass. I think if a rookie was in there, he might have thought there wasn’t pressure coming, wasn’t a blitz coming and might have just run the run into trouble,” Richt said. “But he knew what was up. He made the check and not only did the receiver he went to have a certain route, it was a conversion off of a certain route because it was press coverage.
“He knew what to do, Langham knew what to do, the line knew what to do and then we did it right. We threw a touchdown and we could celebrate. That’s the thing that Malik gives us.”
As to what Richt would like to see from his quarterbacks and the rest of his players moving forward, the coach said those discussions will come with the Hurricanes privately in the next few days.
But he is confident whichever quarterback is under center on Sept. 2 will be prepared to face the Tigers. He also made it clear that the quarterback race will go on as long as it has to, even if changes must be made in-season.
“They’ve got to know enough and I’ll say this, whoever becomes the quarterback, if it’s not Malik, we’re going to not make him confused,” Richt said. “I’m going to put him on a ‘need to know’ basis I say. I’m going to tell you what you need to know to function. You may not know why it works or why we do what we do, but you’re going to know what to do. One day, you might know why we do it and all that kind of thing.
“If we think somebody can perform better and maybe lighten his load a little bit or maybe give some more responsibility to our center — Tyler Gauthier can direct traffic without a quarterback saying who the MIKE linebacker is and all that — if I have to do something like that, I’ll do it.”
Rosier wasn’t the only one of Miami’s quarterbacks to put together solid numbers Saturday behind an offensive line Richt noted played better than it did in last week’s spring game.
Perry was 7 of 12 for 54 yards, Williams was 2 of 3 for 31 yards and Weldon, who missed both previous scrimmages while dealing with an eye infection, was 9 of 12 for 113 yards.
Freshman defensive end Greg Rousseau, who has been one of the strongest performers this spring, had another nice showing Saturday, notching four tackles, including two sacks. Gerald Willis, who did not play last season after taking a leave of absence from the team, had two tackles and broke up a pass, while linebacker Bradley Jennings Jr. had a scrimmage-high five tackles.
Edgerrin James, Lamar Thomas, Kellen Winslow II, Jon Beason, Reggie Wayne and Greg Mark. Robert Knowles Trajan Bandy