D'Eriq King (born August 24, 1997) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

DC Defenders The DC Defenders are a professional American football team based in Washington, D.C. The team was founded by Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment and is an owned-and-operated member of the new XFL owned by Dwayne Johnson’s Alpha Acquico. The ...

of the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

. He played college football at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

before transferring to the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

where he played

Early years

King attended Manvel High School in

Manvel, Texas Manvel is a city in Brazoria County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 9,992, up from 5,179 at the 2010 census. History The population increased from 5,179 to 9,992 from 2010 to 2020, and in November 2021 there wer ...

. He began his sophomore year as the eighth-string quarterback, claiming the starting spot a few weeks after the first game. During his senior season, he broke the career Texas 6A passing touchdowns record of 117 set by

Kyler Murray Kyler Cole Murray (born August 7, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). Following a stint at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M, Murray played college football at University of Okl ...

the year before. During his high school career he passed for over 10,000 yards and rushed for over 3,000, throwing for 140 touchdowns and rushing for 48. He originally committed to

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

(TCU) to play college football but changed to the

College career

Houston

2016

King entered his freshman year at Houston as a wide receiver after injuries plagued the receiving corps during fall camp. He played in 10 games and made four starts, recording 29 receptions for 228 yards and a

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

2017

He played quarterback and receiver as a sophomore in 2017. After leading a comeback win against

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

, he took over as the starting quarterback for the final four games of the season. For the season, he completed 90 of 139 passes for 1,260 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions. He also added 379 rushing yards with eight touchdowns and had 29 receptions for 264 yards and two touchdowns as a receiver. King entered 2018 as Houston's starting quarterback.

2018

His junior season was cut short when he suffered a non-contact knee injury in the eleventh game of the year. On the season, he passed for 2982 yards, 36 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. He also rushed for 14 touchdowns;

and

Dwayne Haskins Dwayne Haskins Jr. (May 3, 1997 – April 9, 2022) was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons. He played college football at Ohio State, where he set the Big Ten Conference records fo ...

were the only quarterbacks with more total touchdowns that year.

2019

King returned as starting quarterback for his senior season after recovering from the previous season's injury. However, after the team's first four games, King announced he was going to

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

for the remainder of the 2019 season.

Miami

2020

On January 20, 2020, King announced his transfer to the

2021

On Sept. 4, King threw for 179 yards and a touchdown in a 44-13 road loss to No. 1 Alabama at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium to open the 2021 season. King was named Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar by ''Diverse: Issues In Higher Education''.

NIL venture

On July 1, 2021, NCAA student-athletes were allowed to receive compensation for use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) for the first time, and King was one of the first athletes to take advantage of the new rules. He and

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

quarterback

McKenzie Milton McKenzie Milton (born October 10, 1997) is a former American football quarterback who previously played for the Florida State Seminoles of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the University of Central Florida (UCF) of the American Athletic Confere ...

became the co-founders and public faces of Dreamfield, a company specializing in booking live appearances for student-athletes. Dreamfield will also offer

non-fungible token A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the b ...

s (NFTs), digital art works that cannot be duplicated and are purchased with

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...

College statistics

Professional career

New England Patriots

King signed with the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

as an undrafted free agent on May 9, 2022. He was waived on May 16.

Carolina Panthers

On November 14, 2022, King signed with the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

practice squad. King was expected to be assigned to the

of the

on November 15 before the signing occurred. He was released on November 22.

DC Defenders

On December 12, 2022, King was officially assigned to the

of the

after being released by the Panthers.

References

External links

Houston Cougars bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, DEriq 1997 births Living people People from Brazoria County, Texas Players of American football from Texas Sportspeople from the Houston metropolitan area American football quarterbacks American football wide receivers Houston Cougars football players Miami Hurricanes football players New England Patriots players Carolina Panthers players DC Defenders players