Improved quarterback play gives the team a great shot at an ACC title
While Quincy Roche will give the Miami Hurricanes some much-needed bite along the defensive front, the biggest transfer portal acquisition made by “The U” was getting former Houston Cougars quarterback D’Eriq King to come over from The American. Wisely choosing to not exhaust his last year of eligibility under Dana Holgorsen’s watch, King can be a South Florida king.
In four years with the Cougars, King completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 4,925 yards, 50 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Though Houston has run some variation of the Air Raid offense seemingly forever, King seems to have a few traits as a quarterback that would have translated to a greater degree of success if he were to go to a Power 5 stage. Now, he’ll have that opportunity.
Along with a handful of other teams including the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Virginia Tech Hokies and now the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Miami is that in a cluster of programs capable of facing, and possibly upsetting, the Clemson Tigers in the ACC title bout. If King is as good as people think he’ll be, the ‘Canes could “pop” under second-year coach Manny Diaz and be here to stay.
Given the NCAA’s ruling of this year’s season not potentially counting towards a player’s eligibility, King might have two years left of ball to be played at Miami. His NFL Draft stock is up in the air, but if any player is capable of making a big leap up future draft boards from the quarterback position in the next year or so, why couldn’t it be him? He could be the on to bring Miami back.