Jarren Williams Proves People Wrong......Again

Throughout the offseason and at the start of fall, my honest opinion was that Tate Martell was going to be named the starting quarterback for the Miami Hurricanes in 2019.

Jarren Williams won the job instead, and proved me wrong.

When Williams was injured and struggled against Virginia Tech in early October, I said that N’Kosi Perry was the best man for the Canes moving forward in 2019.

Williams has once again proven me wrong.

In two weeks, the redshirt freshman has seemingly brought Miami back from the dead and has given new life to the Hurricanes season in 2019. The Canes were 3-4 two weeks ago, but Jarren has since delivered two straight impressive wins to put UM at 5-4.

Against Pitt, Williams replaced a struggling Perry in the fourth quarter, and led a game-winning drive with a touchdown pass to K.J. Osborn that gave Miami the upset victory.

And now this past weekend in Tallahassee, against the rival Florida State Seminoles, Jarren shut up all the doubters (once again) with an excellent performance in the Hurricanes 27-10 win.

You can tell a lot from a quarterback with how they play in pressure situations, and when you’re at Miami, no game is bigger than FSU. Starting things off on their second drive of the day, Jarren made two great plays. First, facing a 3rd-and-7, Dan Enos called a screen to DeeJay Dallas, and Jarren does a great job at making the linebacker and safeties move away from the ball. Dallas makes the easy catch, and scatters into FSU territory on a gain of 42-yards. Two plays later, Williams connected with Jeff Thomas on a 39-yard touchdown on a beautiful throw.

On Miami’s next scoring drive late in the second quarter, the Hurricanes were faced with a 3rd-and-4 from the FSU 40-yard line. Instead of settling for a short pass, Williams aired it out and delivered a dime to Mike Harley for 34-yards all the way to the Noles six yard-line. DeeJay Dallas scored the very next play, as the Canes went into halftime with a 14-3 lead.

Yes, that drive and touchdown were huge, but no play was bigger than the one Williams made in the fourth quarter. Miami was up 17-10 early in the 4th, but the Seminoles had momentum and seemed ready to mount a comeback on the Canes.

Then, on the first play of their drive, Williams hit Dee Wiggins in stride perfectly for a 56-yard touchdown that put UM up by two scores, and proved to be the dagger to FSU.

Williams finished the day going 21-for-37 for 313 yards (career-high) and two touchdowns. Saturday was the second time this season that Jarren had thrown for over 300 yards, which is a big deal for Miami quarterbacks in recent memory.

From nearly transferring last December, to even prior to the Pitt game and him missing practice with more rumors swirling around, it’s no secret that his time at UM has been a rollercoaster ride up to this point. Though, reflecting on Miami’s huge victory over the Seminoles on Saturday, there was nobody I was more happy for than Williams.

There were several aspects of his game that Williams has obviously improved upon as well. For one, throwing the deep ball. Through the first five games that Jarren started, a big knock on him was that he was only completing short passes, and that he lacked the ability to air it out long. Turns out, the three biggest throws Williams made on Saturday were all over 30 yards, and were all plays that changed the game.

Another way that Williams showed improvement was not taking too many sacks. It’s well documented that Jarren would hold the ball for far too long during the first five games, which resulted in him taking way too many sacks. Against the Seminoles, Williams was only sacked twice, and did a great job at getting rid of the football and avoiding the blitz.

For his season totals thus far, Williams stats read: 1,449 yards, 10 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, and he’s completing 67.3% of his passes. He currently ranks 21st in the nation in completion percentage and 25th in passing efficiency.

I’m a fan of Perry and a fan of Martell, but Williams is simply the quarterback for this Hurricanes team, I don't think there's much to argue. Barring another injury, Jarren is the man for Miami for the remainder of 2019, and hopefully for the next couple years.