Miami Hurricanes 2020 Player Profile: N’Kosi Perry

The sadistic, singular quarterback carousel going back the past two seasons had one commonality. Despite two different offensive coordinators in consecutive years, N’kosi Perry was at least a permanent fixture in the quarterbacking calamity.

Like a valiant steed circling around, one second you see it, the next second you don’t. It goes up, it goes down. Perry has seen himself galloped into action on plenty of occasions. Last year when Jarren Williams was injured during the Virginia Tech game, Perry became the starter for the next three games.

The crescendo of that stretch was a particularly ineffective three and half quarters versus Pitt on the road and cue the carousel. Jarren Williams would lead a late game comeback that would ultimately derail Perry’s opportunity to be “the guy.” The carousel continued.

Perry is a career 51.3% passer while at the U with 21 career touchdowns against 10 interceptions. You add his career 2,240 pass yards and his 201 rush yards and you get a sound sense statistically what Kosi has accomplished while donning the orange and green.

Sure there have been flashes. The late game heroics vs Virginia last year on a third and goal. You saw the wiggle and the will to put Miami ahead late. Oh and of course there have been three different quarterbacks to beat FSU in three consecutive years. Perry is proudly part of that trifecta.

Sure there have been setbacks. He suffered a disappointing suspension before the 2018 season opener vs. LSU. Later on that season Perry was pulled from the Virginia game after two early picks. (That was Perry’s first ever road start) Then the hook came again in 2019 when the offense sputtered aimlessly like a rudderless ship vs Pitt.

Sure there is the hive. A devout faction of fans who will always root for him and champion him to start. There is no other quarterback on the roster, or in recent memory for that matter, who has the aura of intrigue like Perry does.

Perry has always had the ability to throw the ball on a frozen rope. A very live armed quarterback who has the capability to make any throw on the field. This fact is one of his defining traits as a QB. Perry can sling it now.

So where are we now? Obviously the clamor for shiny and new coupled with expectation leads fans to believe D’Eriq King and his 50 touchdown form will manifest in Miami. Rightfully so. King was brought in to give the quarterback room the jolt that has undoubtedly been missing.

Full transparency. I have not been an active championing member of the Kosi hive. But I was on record on the Orange Bowl Boy Podcast that if King was not here, N’Kosi Perry should be the starter over Jarren Williams (prior to transfer) in a Rhett Lashlee system.

I meant that. I never forgot the Ocala gunslinger who took aim and shattered Daunte Culpepper’s records with ruthless efficiency. In that spread Vanguard system Perry was a dangerous dynamo. I will always maintain that in order for a quarterback to truly succeed, he needs a perfect marriage of mindset and system.

These previous collegiate systems were not tailor made for Perry. He was either operating a slow shifting cacophonous mess or a rigid predictable everyone knows what is coming farce. There is a reason Enos is the running back coach for Cincinnati and well Mark Richt? Enjoy retirement sir.

Perry is still here. Remember that. Everyone. In a culture where you have players entering the portal within mere seconds of signing on the dotted line, Perry has not yet wavered. That feat is actually more commendable when you consider that the quarterback position is particularly plagued with transfers.

Perry might not have ever fully seized his opportunity and has wandered the line of embattled and embolden with surgical efficiency. His career will either be defined as a deserving starter or that of a consummate backup who has the talent to explode the scoreboard when inserted. If the later is the ceiling then Hurricane fans are very lucky.

Only the fates and N’Kosi Perry can actually determine what number five’s true ceiling is. The good news is, he finally has the right system to do it. Remember, you need the right mentality and the right system for a quarterback to succeed.