STATE OF THE U: QB Depth Chart Analysis
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THE STATE OF THE U SERIES:
STATE OF THE U: PROGRAM BUILDS OFF INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS
QB PROJECTED DEPTH CHART
1st team: Malik Rosier
2nd team: N’Kosi Perry
3rd team: Jarren Williams
While technically the Miami Hurricanes quarterback spot remains an open competition heading into fall camp, coach Mark Richt made it clear throughout the spring that Malik Rosier is the guy here.
What Richt didn’t say: That Rosier has the best arm and most escapability. Heck, in that regard he might just be third on the team behind N’Kosi Perry and freshman Jarren Williams. The freshman Williams might also already have better accuracy than Rosier.
But what Perry and Williams lack is what Richt justifiably values most of all: An understanding of his offense. Perry continues to show he takes too many chances with the ball and has a propensity to run and get happy feet in the pocket. Williams? He’d need a scaled-down playbook as a freshman, which would significantly impact the other players in the offense.
So barring a huge jump up from either of the two younger QB’s (and no, we don’t consider Cade Weldon as a real factor here) this will be Rosier’s ship to steer.
That doesn't make the State of The U Quarterback position as good as we are sure Mark Richt would like. But right now that is reality and for this UM team to be successful, Rosier has to be the guy who led Miami to its 10-0 record last season, not the guy who threw errant passes and looked lost at times in the final three games.
Now, if Rosier falters, don’t be shocked if what happened at Pitt happens again (when Richt pulled Rosier for Evan Shirreffs).
In the pre-season, perhaps the biggest drama will be who emerges as the No. 2 QB.
Don’t rule out Williams surpassing Perry, who as we’ve mentioned is still working to grasp the nuances of the playbook and has to show more pocket presence. If Williams continues to progress, Perry will start running out of time to put his best foot forward.
Williams was an early enrollee and really impressed this spring considering he was so early in his career. He’s got a plus arm, decent escapability/mobility and is probably the most accurate passer in the QB room. He could be the quarterback of the future depending on how much Perry can step up his mental game or if prized recruit Michael Johnson comes into the fold and turns out to be better than both Perry and Williams.
What Perry has going for him is he’s undisputedly the biggest weapon of the QB’s with his legs. When a play breaks down, he can turn in a big gain running away from slower linemen. But he needs to learn to put more touch on his passes and make better decisions under pressure.
For now we’re confident in Rosier starting Game 1 and hat happens after that will be determined by what actually transpires.
Perry as the No. 2? That’s more of a question mark. He’s going to have a battle to hold onto that role this fall.
Last season Rosier threw for 3,120 yards, which was tenth-most in a single season in Miami history, a year ago with 26 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He added 468 rushing yards on 131 attempts with five rushing touchdowns. Those stats sound fine. But in the final three games ... all losses ... he hit on 44 percent of his passes and missed open men numerous times. He has to be the guy who helped UM win its first 10 games in a row, not that guy that ended the season.
Perry? He redshirted last year, and he was widely considered the nation's top dual threat QB coming out of high school. A consensus four-star, he totaled 24 touchdowns and completed 64 percent of his passes during his senior season. And he scored 43 total touchdowns with 11 coming on the ground during his junior season (he threw for over 2,000 yards that season). So yes, Perry's got a ton of ability. He just has to show coaches he can be consistent.
As for Williams, the freshman arrived at UM as a consensus four-star prospect who was ranked the No. 8 overall dual-threat quarterback and the No. 12 recruit in Georgia by Rivals.com. Williams completed 61 percent of his passes during his senior season and threw for over 3,000 yards and 28 touchdowns with just four interceptions. He also rushed for 554 yards and scored 10 touchdowns. His stock rose as his senior year went on, and he wound up with offers from the likes of Ohio State, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Ohio State. His talent level and upside is extremely high.
We don't see Weldon as a major player in the QB race right now, and the former 3-star recruit redshirted last season.
UM hopes the current depth at the position can break a trend that dates back more than 15 years - the talent at this spot just isn’t what it was in UM’s championship years.
Since Ken Dorsey was drafted in 2001, guess how many Cane quarterbacks have been taken by NFL teams?
One.
Brad Kaaya, in the sixth round last year.
Kaaya hasn’t panned out as a pro so far, and his Cane career was up-and-down.
It all begs the question: What happened at Quarterback U?
Part of the equation, of course, is simply guys past regimes targeted.
Here's the list of players Miami signed in 2002 and since: Marc Guillon (2002), Kyle Wright (2003), Kirby Freeman (2004), Daniel Stegall (2006), Robert Marve (2007), Jacory Harris, Taylor Cook and Cannon Smith (2008), Stephen Morris (2010), Preston Dewey, David Thompson and Gray Crow (2012), Rosier and Brad Kaaya in 2014, Shirreffs in 2015, Jack Allison in 2016, Perry and Weldon in 2017 and then Williams this year.
Some of the past takes were a case of bad evaluation.
Some of it was not coaching guys up.
Some of it was both.
And that list doesn't include transfers like Spencer Whipple? Remember him? Believe it or not, one spring Whipple was the top name on a depth chart the team released. Yes, a UMass transfer at the top of UM's depth chart. Staggering.
The bottom line: The misses on QB's targeted in the last 15 plus years is hard to fathom at a program that groomed guys like Kelly, Testaverde, Kosar, Torretta, Walsh and Erickson. Let's throw a guy named Richt in there also for pure respect.
And just look at UM's most recent starter before Rosier - Kaaya. He was taken in the Class of 2014 out of California and wasn't highly recruited even by his local teams, with USC finally making a late offer.
Who did USC sign in its next class after Kaaya went to UM?
A guy named Sam Darnold.
That's the kind of talent Miami probably needs to be going on national title runs in the future.
Darnold was one of five QB’s taken in the NFL’s first round this year. Why couldn’t the Canes have landed one of them in recruiting? Especially a guy like Lamar Jackson, who played in UM’s backyard so to speak at Boynton Beach High. The Canes inexplicably never offered or went after him hard while schools like Auburn, Clemson, Florida, FSU, Nebraska, South Carolina and more were all over him out of high school.
Sure, top recruits aren’t always going to be interested in a program that was faltering at that time. But there were Cane coaches not going after the right guys and not doing a good enough job convincing top prospects to consider Miami.
That’s how you wind up with that disastrous 2012 class of Preston Dewey, David Thompson and Gray Crow. That’s how you wind up with a rudderless offense for too many years.
This year stories listing the top 15 NFL draft prospects in college football have no mention of Rosier and the Hurricanes. For Miami to get back to winning national titles, that trend has to stop.
The good news is the guy at the helm came to UM with a reputation for grooming quarterbacks, and in the bigger picture Mark Richt has barely gotten his feet wet. Perry was a holdover from his Al Golden recruitment and Rosier was signed by Golden. So it’s really only the newly arrived Williams that was purely recruited by Richt. And the Canes are in great shape with 2019 QB Michael Johnson, who several top programs around the country are salivating over.
For QB U to remain QB U, top prospects have to come to Miami, be developed and begin anew that cycle of NFL talent at the position that will help propel and keep the Canes atop the college football landscape.
Until then, the State of the U at quarterback will remain a bit tenuous.