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What have we said ever since the Miami Hurricanes joined the ACC in 2004? What have we said the past several years, even when Mark Richt guided The U to the Orange Bowl and a lofty national ranking in 2017? What has everyone been able to notice from miles away, as Miami has tried — and failed — to win an ACC football championship for a decade and a half?
The Canes needed a quarterback.
The shadow of Ken Dorsey has lingered over the Miami program. Dorsey wasn’t the best quarterback Miami ever had — Bernie Kosar and Steve Walsh would like a word — but he presided over Miami’s most dominant stretch as a program, a 34-game winning streak from 2000 through 2002. Miami should have been allowed to play Oklahoma in the 2001 Orange Bowl for the BCS national championship. Florida State — a team Miami beat — was given the BCS berth instead. Miami won the national title in 2001 with one of the greatest teams ever assembled in college football history. The Canes then came within an eyelash — one penalty flag in the end zone in Sun Devil Stadium — of beating Ohio State for a repeat title in the 2002 season.
Ken Dorsey got the ball where it needed to go. He made the right reads and the sharp decisions Miami required of him. Dorsey helped the Hurricanes put the pieces of the puzzle together. The program had rebounded from mid-1990s penalties and seemed ready to make a comfortable new home in the ACC, alongside Florida State. When the ACC Championship Game was created before the 2005 season, everyone who followed college football thought the event would be a dud, because all those Miami-Florida State ACC title games would get really repetitive after awhile.
The joke was on me, and the many other college football pundits who felt that way.
To this day, Miami and Florida State STILL haven’t met in a single ACC football title game. It boggles the mind, but it’s real… and it comes largely from Miami being unable to find a quarterback who could get the job done.
Now, in 2020 — even though Miami has a flawed roster (particularly on its offensive line) — everyone is getting to see what the Canes look like with a quarterback who is the real deal. D’Eriq King has transferred from Houston and has plainly saved Miami’s bacon in several games. Miami doesn’t win a number of these close contests with other lesser quarterbacks.
Miami coach Manny Diaz hired Dan Enos as his offensive coordinator before the 2019 season with the intent of luring Jalen Hurts from Alabama, where Hurts had worked with Enos. Miami didn’t land Hurts. Oklahoma did. Had Miami landed Hurts, maybe the Canes would have been really good in 2019.
No matter. Diaz moved to Rhett Lashlee as his offensive coordinator for 2020, but the real key was getting the quarterback more than the play-caller. By getting D’Eriq King, Diaz has been able to find a savior. His team wouldn’t be in sniffing distance of the ACC title or a New Year’s Six bowl without King, whose improvisational skills and elite throwing arm have carried the Canes in crunch-time situations.
A late deficit at North Carolina State? A double-digit ditch at Virginia Tech, with Miami missing over 10 players due to COVID-19?
No problem for the Comeback King.
D’Eriq King lit up Louisville in Miami’s ACC opener. At the time, that seemed like a supreme conquest. Louisville has turned out to be a paper tiger, but that doesn’t matter. King’s comebacks in more recent road games have shown that he can overcome all sorts of obstacles. Miami’s limitations aren’t fatal flaws anymore.
A King has displayed the power to minimize their effects.
Clemson and Notre Dame are the best teams. Brian Kelly is the best coach this year in the ACC.
D’Eriq King is, however, the most important player for any team in the conference. He is, quite clearly, the ACC MVP for 2020.
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