ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

July 21, 2021

D'Eriq King

Miami Hurricanes

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions for D'Eriq King.

Q. What does it mean for you to be named co-captain? What does that title mean to you and the responsibilities that come with it?

D'ERIQ KING: Yeah, I think it means a lot, just being named captain of this football just shows the respect that your teammates have for you, right? I think that's the most important thing, what the people think inside the locker room, not what everybody else thinks, what they think inside the locker room. That's the most important thing.

It's a huge honor. I think it's one of my favorite honors. Playing college football, being a captain, at Houston, here, it's one of the biggest honors you can earn as a player.

Q. You've been a part of the resurgence of Miami football. You are built like the old-school teams. A lot of hype. What does that mean for you coming into this season?

D'ERIQ KING: It means a lot. It's a big responsibility being starter quarterback at the University of Miami, right? Just me trying to do everything right, trying to be the guy that my teammates can lean on, trying to be that leader.

It's a huge responsibility, but I'm excited for it. I have a lot of good guys on my team I'm able to play with. I mean, that's the main goal, to win as many games as possible here.

Q. What can you say about everything that you've done in your career, coming from Houston, making the decision to come to Miami, making the decision to come back this year? The road that you've taken, why was Miami the right choice? Why did you come back this year?

D'ERIQ KING: Man, it's a long journey, going from my days at Houston. I love University of Houston. I'm an alumni there, got my degree from there.

And decided to come to Miami, when I entered the portal, I probably had a week to decide where I wanted to go. Obviously, the University of Miami sells itself. It's one of the best universities in the country, one of the most high-profile teams in the country you can play with.

And then just talking to Coach Diaz for a while, and then at the end of the day, Coach Lashlee was the offensive coordinator, just got the job, and I thought I was the right fit for the offense.

Me coming back, it was an easy decision. Being a starter quarterback at the University of Miami is pretty big, right? I love the University of Miami, my teammates. Last year I feel like we had a decent year, a good year, but it wasn't our standard, right? This year we all wanted to come back, a lot of us decided to come back and try to reach our standard and try to do everything the right way.

Not having an off-season last year, going through the whole COVID season, I want to give my all to the university, I want to see the university win. That's why I decided to come back.

Q. What has been the message from the older guys on this team to the younger players about what you want to see happen this year based on what happened last year? How important is that leadership moving forward?

D'ERIQ KING: Yeah, I think it's very important. I think last year was a good step. I think we took the right steps at the program to ultimately get back to where we wanted to go.

This year we wanted to come back and focus on the little things. A lot of people, they see games, whatever. But they don't understand everything that goes into it. They don't understand what goes into a Tuesday team run. We have little hiccups right here, how we handle it.

That was the main thing for us. All the leaders on the team, we wanted to focus on the little things, don't let anything slide this year, come back with a goal in mind to win as many games as we can this year.

Q. Coach talked about the need to have fewer negative plays in the running game. There were games last year where you were the leading rusher, which was not the design. Tell us about your backfield this year, who you expect to step up.

D'ERIQ KING: Yeah, I think that was one of the main focuses of our off-season, was to limit our negative plays. We were decent in every other aspect besides negative plays.

So we have three, four, five really good backs. All the backs came back, Cam Harris, Don Chaney, Jaylan Knighton. The second year in the system is always better. Last year we learned a whole new offense, not really a real off-season. The guys up front had a really good spring. All five of those guys were back. I think we're deep at the O-line this year. Might be one of the deepest positions at our team.

The O-line and all three running backs coming back, myself included, the running game, I think we'll limit the negative plays.

Q. Is there anything in particular that you're looking to work on as far as from a quarterback position?

D'ERIQ KING: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm working on everything. But the things I want to see my game improve, offense improve as a whole, making more plays downfield. That's big for us. You can make one, two, three plays downfield, that can change the whole game. That's been a big focus.

Getting a better connection with the receivers. Mike coming back, adding a guy like Charleston Rambo, Will Mallory. We have a lot of weapons. It's my job to get those guys the ball. Making plays downfield and staying out of negative plays.

Q. NIL question. You are identified as one of the leaders with the first deals you signed. Are you embracing that? Is that something you're going to talk to your teammates about and guys from other teams to get multiple deals signed there?

D'ERIQ KING: Yeah, I think the whole NIL thing, I think it's really good for college football. My thing was work with good companies. You can't work with everybody. You want to work with companies that align with your core values. You don't want to go out there and work with that company, that company, that company. My main goal is to help as many teammates as I can to earn whatever they can earn.

Not all about me. I want to be by my teammates, for those guys to make as much as possible. Football is still the main thing. A lot of people are worried about how it can affect your play. For us, I know University of Miami, all my teammates, football is the main goal. We're not worried about the NIL thing. We just want to play football. Whenever we have time to deal with that stuff, we'll deal with that kind of stuff.

Q. You completed 64% of your passes last year. This seems like a silly question. Why was that number so high?

D'ERIQ KING: I think my goal is to be over 65%. 64%, it wasn't my standard. I played really good players, guys like Mike, Brevin Jordan, Will Mallory. They make me look good. I have a lot to improve on to get that number 67, 68%, just to make the right decisions.

Coach put me in a lot of good positions to get a lot of first downs. That was probably the reason there.

Q. I know you collaborated with McKenzie Milton on some of this NIL stuff. Did you talk about maybe some of the resistance you would get from your fan bases being rivals and teaming up or is it business is business?

D'ERIQ KING: I think business is business. I've been knowing McKenzie for six, seven years now, back when he was in high school, UCF, I was at Houston. We've been in the same conference. Had a relationship.

Obviously Florida State is our rivals. But like you said, business is business. We both thought it was a good idea to partner with Dreamfield, co-found the company. It's really to help as many guys as we can. The whole platform is for everybody else to make a lot of money, so...

Q. What can you say about Manny Diaz and the relationship in the transfer portal, trying to figure out why to go? Why was he the right fit and why is he still the right fit in Miami?

D'ERIQ KING: Coach Diaz is a great coach. Before he's a great coach, he's a great person, right? I think for me having so many different coaches every single year, I wanted to find obviously a great coach but obviously a great person as well. That was like the most important thing to me.

He's a players' coach. He wants to do whatever is best for the players. That's what I love about him. If he can make anything better for us, he'll do that. I respect that a hundred percent. He's just a great man all around.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.