SMU QB coach D'Eriq King relates to players

Even though SMU quarterbacks coach D’Eriq King hasn’t been coaching long, his recent playing experience makes him relatable to the players.

Plus, coaching has always been in the cards for King who grew up in that environment.

“My dad was a coach. So I grew up with a coach as a kid,” King said. “He was a defensive coordinator my whole life, pretty much. I always knew one day when I got done playing that I wanted to coach. This opportunity came and I’m loving it.”

The opportunity came last June when King joined SMU as an offensive analyst. He was then promoted to quarterbacks coach before the Fenway Bowl and hit the ground running.

“I got hired as quarterback coach during the bowl game,” King said. “That was my first time actually running the meetings and doing all that. But now I feel totally comfortable. I’m confident in what I know, the meetings are fine, and I feel good right now.”

One of the biggest things King brings to the table is that he’s not that far removed from playing in SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee’s offense. King started for Lashlee at Miami in 14 games over two seasons throwing for 3,453 yards and 26 touchdowns, with another four touchdowns on over 600 yards rushing.

“I played in this offense so I can kind of talk to it from a different point of view,” King said. “This spring, we want to come out here and just focus on our eyes and our feet. That’s the big thing for us. If we always get our eyes and our feet right, and you’re getting the ball in the right place, it really does take care of itself.

“So that was the whole deal this spring, like just not focus on the results, but focus on the process, right? Make sure we come out here every day, we know what to do and we execute at a high level. I think for the first 11 practices, they’ve been doing a good job. We’ve just got to keep building on that going to summer to the season.”

Having someone with that experience is big for the players.

“Yeah, he’s helping me, of course,” redshirt sophomore quarterback Kevin Jennings said. “Playing quarterback, that’s what he did in Miami, Houston, he’s been a leader. He’s pushing on me like, ‘You’ve got to do this.’ … There’s not too many like him at all.”

It is an interesting spring at quarterback for the Mustangs. With Stone out, Jennings is getting the first-team reps while redshirt freshman Keldric Luster is getting a chance to work at backup.

“Keldric has had, arguably, one of the best camps out of anybody on our team so far. He’s done a really good job,” King said. “Last year as a freshman he didn’t get a lot of reps. Now he’s getting a bunch of reps and we can see his talent every day. He’s making the right reads, he probably has one of the strongest arms on our team, so he’s doing really good.”

Stone is still getting some work in too, to be ready when he is cleared for full participation. If that happens for fall camp it will be just over eight months since breaking his leg against Navy.

“I think Preston and all of our team here, from Steve to all our trainers, they do a really good job with Preston every day doing rehab,” King said. “He can come out here and he can do whatever’s tolerated. So right now he’s doing a lot of 7-on-7, 1-on-1s and things like that. He’s not getting a lot of team reps, but he’s a guy that started all year last year. So he has those banked reps that he can depend on. But he’s doing a good job. He’s progressing every week and would just like to see him come back and come back to his (old self).”

And when that time comes, King already knows what he wants to work with Stone on. In all, it should make SMU’s quarterback depth even stronger.

“I think, for all the quarterbacks, there’s a lot that we can improve on,” King said. “For Preston, when he comes back, we’re going to work on our feet a lot. That’s one of the main things that I want to get with him on and improve. He wasn’t bad, but we need to improve in that area. Obviously, he’s a really good player, so just building on some of the things that we think we can get better from last year and we’ll focus on that when he’s healthy.”

Until then, the quarterbacks will keep working.

“I think it’s going good. I think the guys are responding well to all the installs we’ve put in,” King said. “They’re doing a good job coming out here every day knowing what to do and making plays.”