Miami Hurricanes Football

The knee injury suffered by Miami quarterback D'Eriq King in a 37-34 Cheez-It Bowl loss to Oklahoma State on Tuesday has been diagnosed as a torn ACL, according to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic.

Miami head football coach Manny Diaz released the following statement regarding the injury:

Per Auerbach, the expectation is that King will be back in time for the start of fall camp ahead of the 2021 college football season.

King announced last week that he would return to Miami next season rather than entering the 2021 NFL draft:

The Manvel, Texas, native performed well in his first season as the Hurricanes' starting quarterback in 2020, completing 64.0 percent of his passes for 2,683 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also rushed for 538 yards and four scores.

Prior to transferring to Miami, King spent parts of four seasons at Houston. His best collegiate season to date came in 2018 when he threw for 2,982 yards, 36 touchdowns and six interceptions, while rushing for 674 yards and 14 touchdowns for the Cougars.

King started all 11 games this season for a Hurricanes team that went 8-3, marking their first season with eight or more wins since going 10-3 in 2017.

After King exited the Cheez-It Bowl, he was replaced by N'Kosi Perry, who performed well with 228 yards and two touchdowns, nearly leading Miami to a come-from-behind victory over the Cowboys.

If King is not ready for the start of the 2021 season, Perry could begin the campaign as Miami's starting quarterback.

Miami Hurricanes quarterback D'Eriq King left his team's Cheez-It Bowl matchup against the No. 21 Oklahoma State Cowboys on Tuesday at Camping World Stadium with an apparent right knee injury. 

The injury occurred while King was making a cut on a five-yard run with four-plus minutes remaining in the first half. N'Kosi Perry replaced King at quarterback.

"D'Eriq King injury doesn't look good," Manny Navarro of The Athletic wrote. "Have to hope at this point [it's] just a badly bruised knee and nothing with torn ligaments or broken bones."

The ESPN broadcast noted that King rejected a cart to take him off the field. He received assistance back to the locker room.

King had completed 10 of 13 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 18 yards prior to leaving the game. He did not return after halftime, and ESPN's Katie George reported that Miami ruled King out for the remainder of the game with a right leg injury.

King spent the first four years of his collegiate career at Houston. He notably had 50 total touchdowns (36 passing, 14 rushing) while completing 63.5 percent of his passes for 2,982 yards (8.6 passing yards per attempt) in 2018.

Unfortunately, King suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee on a non-contact play during his team's 48-17 win over Tulane on Nov. 15. He underwent successful surgery and came back in time to start for Houston in 2019 but decided to redshirt four games into the season.

In January, King announced his plans to transfer to Miami. Entering Tuesday's bowl game, the signal-caller had completed 63.5 percent of his passes for 2,570 yards, 22 touchdowns and just five interceptions in addition to 520 rushing yards and four more scores.

Thanks largely to King, Miami improved from a 6-7 mark last year to 8-2 during the 2020 regular-season slate. Miami's only two losses were to Clemson, which finished second in the final College Football Playoff rankings, and North Carolina (No. 13). 

The Hurricanes offense also drastically improved, with the team scoring 34.0 points per game in 2020 (27th out of 127 FBS teams) versus 25.7 last season (90th out of 130 FBS squads).

The Manvel, Texas, native announced Dec. 26 that he plans to return to Miami for the 2021 season.

King and the No. 18 Hurricanes entered their matchup with the Cowboys looking for Miami's first bowl win since 2016.       

Miami Hurricanes quarterback D'Eriq King is running things back in 2021.

On Saturday, King took to Twitter to announce he will return to the Hurricanes next season after helping lead them to a 8-2 record in 2020:

King transferred to the ACC program from Houston prior to the 2020 campaign.

This may be somewhat of a surprising decision to some considering the quarterback was so successful in his first season at a Power Five school.

He completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 2,573 yards, 22 touchdowns and five interceptions while adding 520 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. The dual-threat playmaker answered questions about whether he could put up head-turning numbers against top-notch competition after starting his career with Houston.

However, King was not included in the first round in the latest mock draft from Bleacher Report's Matt Miller and didn't exactly impress in Miami's most high-profile matchup. The Hurricanes lost 42-17 against Clemson while he threw for just 121 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions.

Returning in 2021 will give him the opportunity to play better in marquee games and perhaps lead Miami back into the upper echelon of college football.

The program has won double-digit games just once since the 2003 season and has fallen behind Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and others on the national stage.

King's return gives the Canes a talented quarterback who can help change that.

The ACC announced that the Georgia Tech at Miami football game, which was scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 19, has been canceled due to COVID-19 concerns within the Yellow Jackets' program.

Per the ACC:

"The Atlantic Coast Conference announced today that next Saturday’s Georgia Tech at Miami football game has been canceled.

"Georgia Tech informed the conference office that it will not be able to meet several of the ACC Medical Advisory Group’s COVID-19 game discontinuation considerations. The ACC Medical Advisory Group report is available on theACC.com (full report)."

Georgia Tech was originally scheduled to play Miami on Sat., Nov. 21, but a COVID-19 outbreak within the Hurricanes' program forced a postponement to Dec. 19.

The 8-1 Hurricanes' final regular season game will now be Saturday at home against North Carolina at 3:30 p.m. ET. The 3-7 Yellow Jackets' season is over.

Per the ACC, 81 of the league's 92 scheduled games (or 88.0 percent) have been played this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused mass game cancellations and postponements. Some leagues also decided to call off their seasons outright, including the Ivy League.

The ACC is scheduled to conclude its season on Dec. 19, when Clemson and Notre Dame will play in the conference title game. Six ACC games are left overall, with four occurring Saturday.

The college football season is slated to finish on Monday, Jan. 11 with the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

University of Miami safety Al Blades Jr. is out for the rest of the season after he was diagnosed with myocarditis a heart condition that has been linked to COVID-19.

He announced the end of his season in a Twitter post on Tuesday, saying he was "looking forward to returning to the field in 2021." Blades also said the condition was discovered while he was "going through COVID protocols."

The No. 10 Hurricanes, who played their first game in 20 days against Duke Saturday after a COVID-19 outbreak paused their season, will play No. 17 UNC this weekend before closing out the season against Georgia Tech on Dec. 19. 

Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle usually caused by a viral infection, has been observed in people who have had COVID-19. A study out of Ohio State published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Cardiology showed four of 26 college athletes who had tested positive for COVID-19 also showed signs of myocarditis.

The condition caused Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez and Buffalo Bills tight end Tommy Sweeney to miss the 2020 seasons in their respective sports. 

Blades, a junior, said his recovery will take around three months. He did not play in the team's return to action and joined 14 other Hurricanes players who were unavailable, according to Susan Miller Degnan and David Wilson of the Miami Herald. 

Through eight games this season, Blades picked up two interceptions while adding 29 tackles (19 solo). Te'Cory Couch took Blades' slot in the lineup in each of the Hurricanes' past two games, recording six tackles, 0.5 sacks and an interception. 

The Miami Hurricanes football team will face the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday, Dec. 5, the school announced Sunday after Miami's matchup with Wake Forest was postponed following an outbreak in the Demon Deacons football program. 

The game will kick off at 8 p.m. ET with television coverage on the ACC Network.   

The ACC announced that the Miami vs. Wake Forest postponement "follows positive tests, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Wake Forest football team." It comes one day after the matchup between Florida State and Virginia had to be postponed due to an outbreak at Florida State. 

In addition, the conference noted it has now had to cancel or postpone 11 games this season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"As we have throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we will continue to work with University leadership and our medical personnel to create the safest environment possible for our student-athletes and staff," Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson said in a statement. "Although we are disappointed that we will be unable to play a game next weekend, this is the right thing to do at this moment."

Miami itself hasn't played the past two weeks due to its own coronavirus outbreak, which included head coach Manny Diaz testing positive for the coronavirus. 

Diaz told ESPN's Mark Schlabach that he believed the positive tests among the Hurricanes were originating from outside the program:

"If you graph it, there's probably a level of safety in terms of what we've been doing and then what's happening is the floodwaters around us are rising. That's what's happening in the country. I feel like inside our program from all of the positives that we have had, through our contact tracing, it's been hard for us to find any type of connection of somebody catching it from somebody inside this building or at practice. What it seems like if they aren't coming down with it, they're coming down with it when they're not around us. It makes it a relentless enemy that has to be bested every day."

Regardless, the No. 10 Hurricanes (7-1) will finally be back in action, barring any future outbreaks or postponements, against Duke (2-7) as they look to further their case for a College Football Playoff berth.

The ACC announced that the Miami at Wake Forest football game, which was scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5, has been postponed because of positive COVID-19 tests within the Wake Forest program.

"The postponement follows positive tests, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Wake Forest football team," a statement from the ACC read.

"The team is adhering to the outlined protocols within the ACC Medical Advisory Group report, which is available on theACC.com (full report)."

Positive COVID-19 tests also caused Wake Forest's Nov. 21 game against Duke to be canceled.

Miami will also be off for an extended period, as its Nov. 21 matchup with Georgia Tech has been rescheduled to Dec. 19 because of COVID-19 concerns within Miami's program.

A new date for the Miami-Wake game has not been announced. Neither school has an open weekend date until after Christmas, as both teams have games on Dec. 12 and 19.

Numerous college football games were canceled or postponed this week amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including Virginia vs. Florida State, Ohio State vs. Illinois, Cincinnati vs. Temple and USC vs. Colorado.

The ACC hasn't been immune to postponements and cancellations, although all of the conference's teams have been able to play at least seven games this year.

Two more regular-season weeks are scheduled in college football, with Championship Week occurring afterward. The College Football Playoff semifinals are set for Dec. 31.

Miami coach Manny Diaz announced he has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be working virtually for the time being. 

"I have tested positive for COVID-19. I am currently in isolation and feeling good overall. I will continue to work with our team virtually as we prepare for our next game at Wake Forest," Diaz tweeted Friday. 

The Hurricanes play Wake Forest on Dec. 5. Their scheduled game against Georgia Tech for this weekend was postponed because of a COVID-19 outbreak in the team. Miami was originally slated to play Wake Forest next weekend but had its remaining schedule reconfigured amid the outbreak.

Georgia Tech and Miami will play Dec. 19 only if the result of the game has ACC Championship Game implications. Miami is currently 7-1 on the season but trails Notre Dame and Clemson in the conference standings. If the standings hold up, the game would be canceled. 

The Hurricanes played without 13 players in last week's 25-24 win over Virginia Tech as part of an extended outbreak that began around Halloween. The ACC gave them two weeks off to give players time to quarantine and quell the spread of the virus.

The remainder of the Miami Hurricanes' 2020 schedule looks a bit different following Monday's announcement from the ACC. 

The conference announced it rescheduled three of Miami's games because of positive COVID-19 tests within the program. The decision to do so also impacted the schedules for other teams in the conference.

Here is a look at the changes:

• Wake Forest at Louisville moved from Dec. 5 to Nov. 28
• Miami at Wake Forest moved from Nov. 28 to Dec. 5
• Western Carolina at North Carolina moved from Dec. 11 to Dec. 5
• Louisville at Boston College moved from Nov. 27 to Dec. 12
• North Carolina at Miami moved from Dec. 5 to Dec. 12
• Georgia Tech at Miami moved from Nov. 21 to Dec. 19 (only if Miami is not in the ACC Championship Game and if it will not impact who plays in that game)

"We are disappointed that we will not be able to play the next two weeks as scheduled but this decision was made in the best interests of the health and safety of all teams," athletic director Blake James said in a statement. "The health and safety of our student-athletes is always our top priority and we will continue to follow the conference’s protocols in order to safely and responsibly return to play."

Miami is No. 12 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll and still a darkhorse contender for the College Football Playoff at 7-1. Its last three wins against Virginia, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech came by a combined nine points, which, when coupled with a 25-point loss to Clemson, caused it to fall in the rankings.

The Hurricanes will need some help to reach the conference title game even with their impressive record.

Clemson has the head-to-head tiebreaker, and Notre Dame is undefeated at 8-0 overall and 7-0 in the conference. Miami does not play the Fighting Irish, meaning it doesn't have the opportunity to make up that ground in a head-to-head showdown.

As for the COVID-19 issues within the program, Andrea Adelson of ESPN noted 13 players were unavailable for Saturday's game against the Hokies for unidentified reasons.

However, head coach Manny Diaz said the game was "on the brink" of being postponed because of the number of COVID-19 cases and close contacts on the team.

Miami was able to avoid an upset against Virginia Tech on Saturday, but head coach Manny Diaz admitted afterward that the game came close to not happening at all.

Diaz told reporters following his team's 25-24 win that the Hurricanes were "were on the brink" of not playing and had to wait for the results of the final COVID-19 tests before deciding to go ahead with the game:

"(The players) wanted to play, and we were right on the brink at some position groups whether we could even function as a team. Some guys had to step up. We were really down on numbers at offensive line. It makes it hard to practice. It makes it hard to do anything, but no one cares right? You go play a game and there's no excuses. The players came here to win the game. I told them I thought they won the game on Fri with their mentality and their attitude with all the things we had to go through this week."

Miami has been announcing players as "unavailable" one hour before games without offering any specific reason.

Prior to the Hurricanes' game against Virginia on Oct. 24, eight players were scratched right before kickoff.

"It's just the reality of 2020," Diaz said two days later in an interview with 560-AM (h/t David Furones of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel).

Per Susan Miller Degnan and David Wilson of the Miami Herald, the Hurricanes didn't have 13 players available for Saturday's game against Virginia Tech for undisclosed reasons. Three of them—Jakai Clark, Jared Harrison-Hunte and Zach McCloud—are starters.

Miami's roster crunch comes as programs across the country continue to deal with COVID-19 outbreaks. There were 15 games this weekend either canceled or postponed.

The Hurricanes have played all eight of their games to this point in the season. They have three games remaining in the regular season.