Redshirt senior quarterback D'Eriq King will have a decision to make at season's end on whether to stay with the Miami Hurricanes for a sixth college season or declare for the NFL draft.
Under normal circumstances, there wouldn't even be a decision to make, but since the NCAA is not counting the 2020 college football season amid the coronavirus pandemic against player eligibility, King has the option to return for a second year at UM after playing his first four at Houston.
Should King opt to move on, what can the Hurricanes look forward to beyond him?
The Hurricanes have three other scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in redshirt junior N'Kosi Perry, redshirt freshman Peyton Matocha and true freshman Tyler Van Dyke. They currently have no signal callers committed as high school prospects in any of their upcoming recruiting classes, including the 2021 class, which can sign early in just over two weeks.
"We're always looking to add the best quarterbacks we can to our roster, just like every team," said Miami offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee on Monday. "Hardly anybody goes years without signing at least a quarterback. We feel good about the guys we're still recruiting. We feel really good about the guys on our roster that should be back with us next year. We feel good about the guys, even in the later classes that we're recruiting."
While the combination of Lashlee, who came over from Southern Methodist in the offseason, and King have shown what a talented quarterback can accomplish in Lashlee's up-tempo spread scheme this season, being new to UM brought on its challenges in recruiting a 2021 signal caller late in the process.
"Quarterbacks are different," Lashlee said. "When I left SMU, we already had the quarterback for this class committed where I was. Quarterbacks typically get recruited almost a year ahead of every other position. When we got here in January, this class of quarterbacks was pretty much picked over, to some degree, but there's still been some pretty good players out there we've been able to recruit. We're optimistic that we're going to find the right guy. Just signing the quarterback doesn't do you any good if he's not the right fit."
One high school quarterback the Hurricanes are known to be enamored with is Southern Cal commit Jake Garcia, who still has Miami-committed prospects in his ear about a late flip to UM.
Van Dyke is a four-star talent in the last class. He was the hand-picked quarterback for previous offensive coordinator Dan Enos in his one season leading the Miami offense, but Lashlee and coach Manny Diaz have previously said they're impressed with his work behind the scenes this season.
Perry already has an abundance of college starting experience from the 2018 and 2019 seasons, where he platooned as a starter with Malik Rosier and Jarren Williams, respectively. Rosier graduated after the 2018 season and Williams transferred out upon King's arrival at Miami.
