Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
UM’s young QBs develop maturity
Players are vying for Rosier’s backup spot
CORAL GABLES — There were moments Jon Richt could only shake his head in disbelief.
The Hurricanes quarterbacks coach knew the players he and his father, Miami coach Mark Richt, had recruited were talented. However, there were far too many times this spring and offseason when N’Kosi Perry, Cade Weldon and Jarren Williams showed their ages — and not in good ways.
Sometimes, even the simple task of being on time for a team meeting seemed challenging for the Hurricanes youngest quarterbacks, a group that includes two redshirt freshmen in Perry and Weldon and a newly arrived freshman mid-year enrollee in Williams.
“When you have three freshmen essentially, you have to teach them to do that. It’s not always been demanded of them the way we demand things and that was frustrating for a long time for us,” Jon Richt said. “We were like, ‘These are quarterbacks. They’re supposed to be perfect. We recruit them to be perfect. Why aren’t they perfect?’ But those guys have really kind of figured it out. … now they’re starting to take initiative
to do things, the right way, on their own.”
While the biggest offseason development in Miami’s quarterback room may have been Mark Richt’s decision to name redshirt senior Malik Rosier the Hurricanes starter before the start of camp, the progress his backups have made isn’t something anyone at Miami is discounting.
These days, Jon Richt says, the young Hurricanes quarterbacks are watching film before they’re being asked. They’re studying their own film and are ready to answer the questions their coaches are asking. They coach themselves more and, when possible, are trying to assert themselves as offensive leaders, even if the majority of their reps are coming with the second and third-string offenses.
And while Perry has spent most of his time with the No. 2 offense during the media viewing portions of camp, as the eighth-ranked Hurricanes prepare for their final scrimmage before their Sept. 2 season opener against LSU, Miami’s young quarterbacks are still vying to see which one of them will be Rosier’s backup.
Although their maturity seems to be growing, they’re still working on consistency, particularly against the Hurricanes No. 1 defense, which is widely expected to be among the best in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“They’ve all had bright moments at times, but it’s been too much up and down. At any position, you don’t want to have that, but especially playing quarterback, that should be a stable position,” Hurricanes offensive coordinator Thomas Brown said Tuesday. “I would say the competition is still alive and well at that position. … Physical ability, there’s not a whole lot of gap between those guys. They’re obviously different players, but they’re all very talented. … You can’t substitute experience and playing time at that position. Malik has a lot more of that than anybody else.”
And therein lies one of the Hurricanes’ biggest issues going into the season.
Rosier is the only quarterback on Miami’s roster that has experience in a college game. Even before starting all 13 games for the Hurricanes last season and throwing for 3,120 yards and 26 touchdowns, Rosier played in 10 games his first two years on campus and even made a spot start at Duke in 2015 when former UM quarterback Brad Kaaya was injured.
Perry and Weldon didn’t have that kind of opportunity last season, both redshirting as the Hurricanes won their first 10 games and secured a berth in the ACC Championship. And while new NCAA redshirt rules mean there’s a chance Williams will get the chance to play this season, none of them know what to really expect, other than what they’ve faced in practice.
Fortunately for the trio of young quarterbacks, Miami’s defense has provided tests throughout camp, with Williams laughingly recounting it was Hurricanes defensive end Joe Jackson — who is already generating buzz as a potential firstround draft pick — that delivered the first big hit he remembers getting since arriving at Miami this past January.
“My first hit? Joe Jack. And I got sandwiched,” Williams laughed. “I got the ball and I threw it and I remember they just sandwiched me. I got up and was like, ‘All right, it’s football. It’s good. I’m good.’ ”
For Perry and Weldon, who were on the Hurricanes’ scout team last season, things have been different. Both say they have a better understanding of the playbook and the Hurricanes offense than they did a year ago at this time. And both say they’ve benefited from working with Rosier, who has embraced teaching them the way Kaaya once taught him.
The goal, for both now, is just to find ways to put everything together.
“I feel like that’s my biggest difference now, my maturity. Not on the field, but off the field,” Perry said. “I’ve been good in school, everything. It’s just being consistent. That’s the main thing, being consistent and that’s where the maturity comes in, doing the right things at all times, not just when somebody’s watching.”
Added Weldon: “I feel like as a quarterback, I’ve started to take the responsibility that is required at that position, to lead the other guys on the team. If you’re the quarterback, you have to be a leader. You have to take that responsibility of leading other guys and I think that’s something I’ve done a lot better than I did a year ago. I was excited to get to college when I was a freshman. Now I’ve realized you have to focus on what’s important and I think I’m doing a lot better job of that.”