Ex-Houston QB D'Eriq King announces transfer to Miami
D’Eriq King is going from the AAC to the ACC.
The talented ex-Houston quarterback is transferring to Miami, he announced on Monday. It’s a huge pickup for a Miami program on the heels of yet another disappointing season.
King announced his intent to leave Houston with a tweet during the national championship game between LSU and Clemson. King played in the first four games of the season before deciding to take a redshirt to preserve one final year of eligibility. At the time, he said he planned to stay at Houston.
In the end, however, King decided to see what else was out there and landed in South Florida after a weekend visit, choosing the Hurricanes over reported interest from Arkansas, LSU and Maryland.
Story is still being written... LETS GO! #TheU 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/NLjL9FzUuW
— King (@DeriqKing_) January 20, 2020
One of best available transfer QBs
King is one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the country. King was in his third season as UH’s starter when he decided to redshirt. Just days before that decision, King set an FBS record by throwing and rushing for a touchdown in 15 consecutive games.
King played wide receiver when he first arrived at Houston before moving over to quarterback during the 2017 season. King had a huge season in 2018, throwing for 2,982 yards and 36 touchdowns while completing 63.5 percent of his passes. King also rushed for 674 yards and 14 scores that season.
In all, King has thrown for 4,925 yards and 50 touchdowns, rushed for 1,660 yards and 28 touchdowns and caught 59 passes for 504 yards and three scores during his college career.
With ex-Wake Forest quarterback Jamie Newman off the board to Georgia, King immediately vaulted to the top of available graduate transfer QBs. Other grad transfer QBs looking for new schools include K.J. Costello (ex-Stanford), Anthony Brown (Boston College) and Feleipe Franks (Florida).
Miami’s QB play has been brutal
The last time Miami played, it got shut out in the Independence Bowl by Louisiana Tech. It was a miserable performance that gave the Hurricanes a 6-7 record in their first season with Manny Diaz as head coach.
Quarterback play was a major issue for Miami in 2018, Mark Richt’s final season with the program. And those issues carried over into 2019. Miami used three quarterbacks in the bowl loss: Jarren Williams, N’Kosi Perry and Tate Martell. Williams began the year as the starter and showed promise at times, but also was wildly inconsistent. Perry, who started part of 2018, wasn’t much better. Martell was a heralded transfer from Ohio State but barely saw the field.
Diaz will hope King can solve some of the issues that have persisted. And King will do so with a new offensive coordinator in place in Coral Gables. Diaz hired Rhett Lashlee away from SMU, a team that ranked seventh in the country in scoring offense (41.8 ppg) and ninth in total offense, averaging 489.8 yards per game.
Miami also lands transfer defensive lineman
King wasn’t the only player to announce a transfer to Miami on Monday. The Hurricanes also received a commitment from Quincy Roche, a defensive lineman who played the first three years of his career at Temple.
Roche was the AAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 when he totaled 19 tackles for loss and 13 sacks. Over the course of his Temple career, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Roche totaled 137 tackles, 39.5 tackles for loss and 26 sacks.
— Q. (@Qr9____) January 20, 2020
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