D'Eriq King won the weekend

D’Eriq King has had a nice if unspectacular start to his college career. After dazzling in high school as the quarterback of high-powered Manvel, the undersized King (he’s just 5-10 and 170 pounds) made the transition to receiver-slash-athlete pretty effortlessly, catching 29 passes for 228 yards and a score as a freshman while adding a passing touchdown on a gadget play and a kickoff return for a touchdown. A nice little niche! D’Eriq King is not here for a nice little niche. The college football world got introduced to King in a big way on Saturday, as he spearheaded Houston’s exhilarating come-from-behind 28-24 victory over previously unbeaten and nationally ranked South Florida. With Kyle Postma ineffective and Kyle Allen apparently deemed persona non grata by the Houston staff, the Coogs turned to the sophomore King midway through the first quarter, a dramatic shift from the pocket passer Postma to the more mobile King. It wasn’t all sunshine and daffodils for King in Tampa, especially early. The Houston offense, facing a sensational USF defense, remained stuck in the mud for the entirety of the first half. But something clicked in the second half, when King dropped a dime to Courtney Lark for a 39-yard touchdown pass — his first of King’s career — to draw even at 7-7. From there, King visibly settled down, and so did the rest of the Houston offense. While the Cougars’ defense was standing tall in the face of grinding USF rushing attack, King was going to work, using his legs and some precise passes to keep the Coogs close. When he ran for a 3-yard score with 6:20 to go to tie the game at 21, you felt like he had done enough to keep the job for the remainder of the year. Win, lose or draw — and USF’s go-ahead 30-yard field goal with 1:46 to play seemed to indicate “lose” — King had established himself as the clear leader of the Cougars’ offense. And then, King did more. It’s intellectually dishonest to say that King led a 9-play, 49-yard touchdown drive. In reality, thanks to a scramble for a loss and a sack that resulted in a 4th and 24 from his own 37, King led a 6-play, 63-yard drive. It started with a wild conversion of that aforementioned 4th and 24 on a pass to Lark; it finished with a you-can’t-catch-me 20-yard scamper to the end zone with 11 seconds left. And that was that. Houston took down a ranked team, on the road. All from a guy who started the year as an emergency quarterback, a guy who had had a nice but unspectacular college career so far. Let there be no doubt: this is D’Eriq King’s offense now. All hail the King.