Hurricane Irma gave
UM QB works to get offense clicking after Irma
Miami’s Malik Rosier and his team time to get refocused on football, the starting QB says. They’ll see if it pays off this Saturday when they host Toledo in the ’Canes’ first game since Sept. 2.
LAKE BUENA VISTA — Like many living in South Florida, Malik Rosier had a decision to make as Hurricane Irma approached earlier this month.
The Hurricanes quarterback knew he could return home to Mobile, Ala. and get himself completely out of the storm’s path. Or he could get on a bus with some of his coaches and teammates and head to Orlando where they might feel some effects from the hurricane, but where they could weather it all together.
After conversations with Miami coach Mark Richt and quarterbacks coach Jon Richt, Rosier ultimately decided to stay with the Hurricanes. It’s a move he hopes will, in its own way, pay off when he and No. 14 Miami host Toledo at Hard Rock Stadium in the Hurricanes’ first game since Sept. 2.
“We just talked ball basically the whole time,” Rosier said Tuesday of how he and his teammates spent their time in Orlando before and after Irma passed through. “They had us away from the storm.
We were in little rooms together and we just talked ball basically the whole time we were there. Right now, it feels like camp or almost like a bowl game. … I know there are a lot of people I’ve been praying for down there in Miami, but for us, it’s nice to isolate ourselves and get ready for this game because we haven’t played a ball game in about two weeks now. It’s nice to just get focused on football again.”
For Rosier, it’s been an eventful few weeks and little has likely gone as he might have expected.
Named Miami’s starting quarterback in late August, he played well in Miami’s 41-13 season-opening win against Bethune-Cookman earlier this month, completing 17-of-28 passes for 217 yards with three touchdowns. But Irma forced the cancellation of what would have been his second game as a starter, a Sept. 9 matchup at Arkansas State. And the hurricane also forced Miami and Florida State to postpone their annual rivalry game, pushing it from Week 3 of the season to Oct. 7.
By now, Rosier and the Hurricanes figured they would have learned plenty about their offense, especially after they expected to have matched up against a fierce Seminoles’ defense.
Instead, the Hurricanes are once again worrying about timing and rhythm, and making sure players are on the same page. Fortunately, they say, even with Irma’s impact, they’ve found ways to get work done.
At the hotel where the Hurricanes have spent part of their time in Orlando, there was a turf field where Rosier was able to do some throwing. Receivers, including Ahmmon Richards, Mike Harley, Dee-Jay Dallas, Dionte Mullins and running back Mark Walton, jogged past children playing nearby to catch Rosier’s passes, the players slowly re-establishing the offensive rhythm impacted by Miami’s long layoff.
As more of the Hurricanes made their way to Orlando, the work only intensified.
“It was different,” receiver Braxton Berrios said of resuming workouts with his quarterback. “But the timing hadn’t changed, really. Obviously, it took a day or two to get everybody back and their legs under them and clicking like we want to, especially on the conditioning side. … You can’t do stuff on your own and expect to be in the same shape you were when you were in the groove. So that was really it, the conditioning. The timing came back really quickly. From a football aspect, it’s been very frustrating.”