Still some room for improvement
UM FOOTBALL
“Sometimes we look at it to confirm whether we have it or not and sometimes we don’t confirm whether we have it and we miss it, if you will.”
All this, of course, is nitpicking on the finer details for a redshirt freshman who is still in his first year as a starter and missed significant time in the middle of the season.
“The guy is still young, in a way,” coach Manny Diaz said. “[It comes with] the more times you see all these pass concepts, the more times you get the reads of what’s going on down the field.
“No quarterback is ever going to play perfect. More than anything, it’s still just to fit in the offense, like he didn’t set out two weeks ago to throw six touchdowns. He just set out to play well and orchestrate the offense and do with the plays that were called.”
But in order to get to this point, Williams has made strides in his pocket presence and keeping his eyes downfield, away from the pass rush — issues that arose in the opener against Florida — and his lowerbody mechanics that allowed him to get better arm strength on his deep throws.
“I do think one of the biggest improvements he’s made has been in his fundamentals and his technique, as far as his drops, his pocket posture, his bringing his hips through on the throws,” Enos said. “We were just commenting [Monday] morning because we practiced [Sunday] night, just watching him function in the pocket is like night and day from where we were in the spring and even during camp.”
Diaz is hopeful Williams will continue to evolve as a leader.
“As long as he keeps that mentality, how to deal with some adversity, how to deal with success — and we kind of went through that as a team and with Jarren individually,” Diaz said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to seeing as a team and as we see Jarren continue to evolve as being able to handle the position of being the Miami quarterback through good times and bad times.”