Rosier’s running ability helps UM
Quarterback has 377 yards, five TDs on 100 carries.
CORAL GABLES — One of Miami’s most important goals entering the year was to keep Mark Walton healthy.
But football doesn’t always allow for what teams want, and in the fourth quarter of the Oct. 7 game at Florida State, Walton was carted off with a right ankle injury that would end his season. It didn’t end Miami’s. Sophomore Travis Homer (Oxbridge Academy) has been a revelation, sitting 146 yards away from 1,000 even though Miami canceled one game because of Hurricane Irma. Multitalented freshman DeeJay Dallas, who arrived as a receiver, converted to running back midseason and flashed his talent. But the quarterback run, which coach Mark Richt hoped to add to Miami’s arsenal this year, may have saved the season.
The Hurricanes went 9-4 in 2016, Richt’s first year, with Brad Kaaya under center. Kaaya, an accurate passer, was not a threat to cross the line of scrimmage. Malik Rosier, his former backup, has Miami (10-0, 7-0 ACC) in playoff contention by being just the opposite.
Rosier ranks seventh among ACC quarterbacks in rushing yards per carry (3.77), and has 377 yards and five touchdowns on 100 carries. He is three touchdowns from setting the Hurricanes’ program record for total touchdowns (he has 28). Though Miami’s offensive line has had an up-and-down season, the Hurricanes have allowed the fourth-fewest sacks (18) in the ACC and rank third in rushing yards per carry (5.32).
Rosier has more than enough throwing ability — he ranks third in the conference in passer rating and has thrown for 2,620 yards, 23 touchdowns and nine interceptions — but his mobility keeps defenses wary, which buys receivers time and space.
This is unique for Miami, which earned its “Quarterback U” rep on talented arms, not legs.
Nearly all Hurricanes quarterbacks of the past 50 years have been passers, not runners. The last to rush for five touchdowns: Ryan Collins (43 carries, 188 yards) in 1993. Before Rosier, the last UM quarterback with 100 rushing attempts (sacks included) was Kary Baker in 1974.
Since 1956, according to stats kept by Pro Football Reference, the record for rushing touchdowns by a Miami quarterback is eight, set by Bob Biletnikoff in 1964. He also set the mark for QB rushing attempts (143, for 351 yards). Eddie Johns has the yardage record for a Miami quarterback, with 521 and seven touchdowns on 123 carries in 1960.
Biletnikoff, whose brother, Fred, starred as a Florida State receiver and later with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, signed a pro baseball contract with the New York Yankees in 1966. UM baseball coach Ron Fraser cried foul, calling it “a raid of the worst kind.”
Rosier, who played one season of baseball at UM (2015), admitted last week he does miss the game, but football deserves his “utmost attention.” Good for the Hurricanes, who enter Friday’s game at Pittsburgh looking for their first unbeaten regular season since 2002.
Rosier used his legs to score a touchdown in each of the past three games. He rushed for a season-high 84 yards on 13 carries in UM’s win over then-No. 13 Virginia Tech, frustrated then-No. 3 Notre Dame by picking up multiple first downs on QB draws, and put Miami ahead 37-28 in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game against Virginia by weaving his way to an 8-yard touchdown.
Miami has thrown touchdown passes off that run-pass option play, but Rosier read the coverage and saw room to run. Miami’s tackles held the edges, left guard Trevor Darling and center Tyler Gauthier picked up blockers at the second level, and Rosier scampered in.
“It was a great run,” Richt said Monday on WQAM. “He set up his blocks well. He was either patient or not really fast, I don’t know. I like to bust his chops because he has a good spirit, good humor about everything.
“We have a term we call ‘doodad’ — guys that can really stick their foot in the ground and make a guy miss out in space. He keeps thinking he’s making a doodad. I said, ‘You’re not making a doodad.’ My son Jon (Miami’s quarterback coach) described it (as), ‘You’re kind of bobbing and weaving, but you’re really not doing a doodad.’ We’ll settle for that. It’s been fun.”
Richt, who was quarterbacks coach at Florida State when Charlie Ward won the Heisman and led the Seminoles to a national championship in 1993, deployed another mobile threat, D.J. Shockley, in an SEC Championship at Georgia in 2005. Before last week’s Virginia game, Richt described Rosier as “a good passer” and an “agile runner,” though “not an unbelievable runner.”
“If they’re in coverage he can get 4, 5, 6 yards, that’s a pretty good gain down there in the red zone,” said Richt, who scored two career rushing touchdowns himself as a Miami quarterback (197882). “There’s some options built in to throw the ball as well. He is sharp enough to handle it, and he’s a good enough athlete to run, and he has been durable, thankfully, to be able to run it a little bit.”