Rosier has inside track at Miami

Although Miami coach Mark Richt said after the Orange Bowl loss to Wisconsin that every position, including quarterback, would be up for grabs in the spring, he apparently has reconsidered that stance for quarterback Malik Rosier. "Malik is the starting quarterback, for sure," Richt said in a recent interview with David Hale of ESPN.com. "Someone's got to dethrone him. Someone's got to beat him out if that's going to happen. It's not like -- to say it's wide open, every position is wide open because we want a competition at every level. Every player that comes back talks about the greatest competition they had was on the practice field. "And I also want to go into this season with a sort of first-year mentality. Let's go compete. Show us you're ready to take somebody's job. But Malik is the starting quarterback, and he's going to be unless somebody knocks him off the perch." Questions arose about Rosier's starting status for next season when he struggled in the Hurricanes' final three games. Miami was 10-0 before losing to Pittsburgh, Clemson (in the Atlantic Coast title game) and Wisconsin to finish the season. Rosier completed less than half his passes in each of those three games and was 40 of 89 (44.9 percent) with three touchdown passes and five interceptions while getting sacked 10 times in that stretch. "Was he consistent every game, every series? Probably not, but the guy made some plays that were game-winning plays," Richt said in the interview. "The Notre Dame and Virginia Tech games, those were less dramatic than five other games we played. Plays just had to be made." For the season, Rosier completed 54.0 percent of his pass attempts with 26 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. One reason Richt may be confirming Rosier's status as a starter is that his backup in 2017, Evan Shirreffs, announced last month he will transfer. Shirreffs has not announced his new school, but he will be allowed to transfer as a graduate student to three ACC schools -- Duke, North Carolina and Virginia -- after previously being blocked by Miami from playing immediately if he transferred to those schools in Miami's conference, his father told CBS Sports. Joining Rosier at quarterback in the spring will be redshirt freshmen N'Kosi Perry and Cade Weldon and incoming freshman Jarren Williams, who signed with the Hurricanes during the early signing period in December and was scheduled to enroll at Miami this term and participate in spring practice.