Rating of the deliberate beginning quarterbacks Phoenix will face in 2021

Assessing the quarterback situation is the easiest way to diagnose the outcome of a college football game.

In general, the college football team with the quarterback advantage has the best chance of winning.

That certainly played out for Phoenix in 2020, when the Hurricanes introduced quarterback D’Eriq King and had the quarterback advantage in most games.

UM ended the season on an 8-3 record, with two of the losses to Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, ranked number 1 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, and North Carolina’s Sam Howell, who is likely to be a top pick are in the 2022 NFL Draft.

The third loss UM suffered was against a team from the State of Oklahoma with a talented quarterback in Spencer Sanders, who was hot early in the game when the Cowboys took an early 21-0 lead. It should also be noted that D’Eriq King sustained an injury in the game when UM fell, 37-34.

King started all 11 games for the Hurricanes in 2020, throwing for 2,686 yards with 23 touchdowns and only five interceptions, but also rushed for 538 yards and four points. He completed 64.1 percent of his passes, the second-highest percentage for completing a single season in school history.

According to Pro Football Focus, King was named the country’s eleventh best passerby (among quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks in the season).

As a runner, King ranks seventh in the country in scramble yards at 293 yards versus the 672 yards he won as a scrambler on the ground. King made a total of 26 rush attempts that took at least ten meters, which is the third most in the country. He’s also averaging 3.99 yards per carry after contact, which led the Hurricanes in 2020, and is the eighth best among quarterbacks who have a total of at least 20 carries in the season.

King’s consistency at the quarterback made the difference to the Hurricanes in victories over Virginia, NC State, and Virginia Tech. Those games were decided by an average of three points, with King averaging 335 yards and two touchdowns against zero interceptions. He also rushed for an average of 49 yards and just under one touchdown in those games.

In modern college football, the quarterback match plays an important role in every game. At this far too early point in the off-season, it looks like UM is facing a strong number of seasoned and / or talented quarterbacks.

Phoenix will find out how their schedule for 2021 plays out on Thursday when the ACC releases the conference schedule.

Read on as we evaluate the 11 planned launch quarterbacks the Hurricanes will face on their 2021 schedule.

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