CORAL GABLES, Fla. _ In his time at Miami, Hurricanes coach Mark Richt has made it clear he wants his players _ including starters _ to know they'll have to be prepared to compete if they want to keep their jobs.
But as the Hurricanes move closer to March 20th, when they'll open spring practice, Richt wanted to make it clear that Malik Rosier, the quarterback who led Miami to 10 consecutive wins last season, remains the starter, even as redshirt freshmen N'Kosi Perry and Cade Weldon have both grown increasingly more comfortable in the Hurricanes' offense.
"We've been watching the cut-ups of the whole season and if you take just the highlights of Malik Rosier, there's some unbelievably great highlights, some great moments. And then there are some inconsistent moments," Richt said on Saturday morning before taking the field at Hard Rock Stadium to work with more than 300 families participating in an All Pro Dads event. "I think when Malik becomes more consistent in his accuracy, probably more than anything else, he can lead us as far as we need to go.
"(But) just backing up on this QB thing, it's not like ground-zero competition. Malik is our starting quarterback. We're going to let everybody compete and see who's improved and who might be able to overtake anybody at any position. I'm not saying Malik is not the starting quarterback going into this thing, but if he does what he's supposed to do, he'll probably continue to be."
Last season, Rosier _ a rising redshirt senior _ completed 54 percent of his passes and threw for 3,120 yards and 26 touchdowns. But he also had 14 interceptions and at times struggled with his accuracy, particularly late in the year when Miami dropped three in a row to Pittsburgh, Clemson and Wisconsin.
Those struggles frustrated not just Rosier, Richt and the rest of the Hurricanes, but Miami fans who were eager to see if Perry, one of the jewels of the Hurricanes' 2017 recruiting class, would be able to unseat Rosier ahead of the start of the 2018 season.
Perry, a former four-star prospect at Ocala's Vanguard High, rose on the Miami depth chart after backup Evan Shirreffs' transfer and even Rosier has acknowledged having the young quarterback behind him has helped him push to improve his game.
"The reason you come to Miami is to compete, to earn your position and win it every year," Rosier said back in December. "I love to compete ... At the end of the day, it's not just going to make me better. It's going to make N'Kosi, the new freshmen, Evan, Cade, it's going to make all of us better."
As to what Rosier will have to do to keep his job, Richt said improving his accuracy will be important. Fixing some of his fundamentals could come into play, though the coach is confident the quarterback can do both.
"Accuracy improves when routes get run better, when protection gets better, when footwork by the quarterback gets better. When maybe we call a certain play at the right time ... most plays have a chance of success no matter what, but there's some times you happen to call the right one at the right moment," Richt said. "So there's a lot of things that go into it and just the fundamentals of throwing the ball. This is the time of year ... it's actually from spring ball till fall that you try to tweak anything in somebody's throwing motion. Right before spring practice is not the time to do it. But when spring practice is over and you know you've got from the end of spring to fall camp to work on anything fundamentally, that's the time we'll be working on that."
