Miami names N’Kosi Perry as starting QB against Virginia

Miami Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz has named redshirt sophomore N’Kosi Perry as the starting quarterback against the Virginia Cavaliers when the two teams face off this Friday night. According to The Athletic reporter Manny Navarro, Diaz says that Jarren Williams, who started in the Canes’ 42-35 loss to Virginia Tech, is dealing with shoulder injuries.

Redshirt freshman Williams had beat Perry and Tate Martell in a three-way battle over the summer for the starting position. But last week against the Hokies, Williams struggled early and was pulled in favor of Perry. Perry put together career-high totals in completions (28), attempts (47) and passing yards (422). He threw for four touchdown passes, to one interception.

Officially, he logged -16 rushing yards in 9 attempts, but that came off of six sacks. By comparison, Virginia’s quarterback Bryce Perkins suffered eight sacks and finished with -29 total rushing yards in the Hoos’ losing effort against Notre Dame.

This won’t be the first time Perry has faced the Cavaliers. As a starter in last year’s contest, Perry threw for two interceptions on just six attempts before he was pulled in the first half. Virginia upset then-No. 16 Miami, 16-13, on Homecomings weekend in Charlottesville. Here are game highlights:

He officially registered a quarterback rating of 0.1 for that game.

Early in the summer, it wasn’t clear whether Perry would see much playing time at all this season after last year’s off-the-field indiscretions got him in trouble. But, according to Miami running back DeeJay Dallas, Perry has grown more mature this season and has not had any off-the-field problems this year.

Kickoff is at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 11. The game will be televised on ESPN.