CORAL GABLES, Fla. _ Miami Hurricanes offensive coordinator Dan Enos revealed on Monday that quarterback N'Kosi Perry had a separated shoulder when he left and went back into Saturday's 28-21 overtime loss to Georgia Tech.
Enos let Perry's injury to his left, non-throwing shoulder be known as he was analyzing his play and expressed how proud he was of the toughness Perry exhibited on Saturday.
"It's tough to criticize a guy too much that has a separated shoulder and comes back in the game," Enos said. "I can't express enough the admiration that I have for his courage and his competitiveness and toughness. I have not seen that very much in my career. A guy that went through the hit he went through, the injury that he had, and there he was, playing, took off and scrambled one time."
Perry suffered the injury on a third-quarter scramble up the middle where he lowered his shoulder into a Georgia Tech defender for a 9-yard gain. Jarren Williams, Miami's starter for the first five games who is dealing with an apparent shoulder injury of his own that the team is calling an upper extremity injury, relieved him for the remainder of the series.
Six offensive plays and a 14-play Yellow Jackets drive later, Perry was in for the Hurricanes' next possession. The Georgia Tech drive took 7:58 off the clock.
Enos revealed the injury as he assessed Perry's play and found himself harping too much on how there were instances where Perry watched the pass rush and missed open receivers downfield because of it.
"That a guy's looking at the rush, I can't really fault N'Kosi too much other than the fact he was playing with an extreme amount of pain, trying to win a game for his team," Enos said. "That type of courage, that type of competitiveness, I have the utmost respect for guys that do that. We'll live with a couple of mistakes that he made, but he gave our team a chance to win and proud of the way he competed and handled that injury like that. That's big stuff right there."
Perry was 16-of-28 for 188 yards, two touchdowns and a rushing score on Saturday. Williams was 1 for 3 for 12 yards and took a third-down sack in his brief appearance.
Neither Enos nor coach Manny Diaz had an update on which quarterback would start this upcoming Saturday at Pittsburgh. Diaz indicated that would likely be announced on Wednesday as both quarterbacks are recovering from injury. Williams, although benched after throwing three interceptions against Virginia Tech and healthy enough to return in that Oct. 5 game, according to Diaz, was only available as a backup on Saturday after his injury that day. It was followed by Perry starting over Williams against Virginia the week in between.
"Jarren, I think he's coming along great," Enos said. "When he went in the game, did a really nice job. That's a tough situation for him to go in, as well. Thought he handled it really well, and (Sunday) night at practice, thought he handled it really good. We'll see how this week unfolds. We're hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that both guys will be available for us."
