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Inside Story: Emory Williams Expected To Transfer To East Carolina After 3 Years at Miami

On3 imageby: Matt Shodell01/20/26canesport

Emory Williams is going into the transfer portal … and is expected to wind up at East Carolina, with a flight scheduled there for later today according to a source close to the situation. After serving as the Miami Hurricanes No. 2 QB the last two seasons behind first Cam Ward and then Carson Beck … and getting some opportunities three years ago as a true freshman … Williams is moving on.

Darian Mensah was a catalyst for that, but the QB already was thinking seriously about transferring prior to that. CaneSport learned that Miami proffered a seven-figure deal to Williams to keep him on the roster, but he wanted a chance to start … and knew the Canes were working to bring in a top transfer like Mensah. There were eight different programs that chased Williams, so there was a lot of interest.

So where does that leave the Canes? Well, Mensah is in a holding pattern for now with Duke suing to try and keep him. Luke Nickel will be back, and Judd Anderson had been looking at his portal options but we think it’s likely he remains at UM. The other QB coming in is true freshman Dereon Coleman.

As for why East Carolina was so tempting for Williams? His former roommate is WR Ray Ray Joseph, who now is there from Miami. Plus new Pirates coordinator Jordan Davis (arrived from North Texas) has a tie to Williams – the Miami QB’s private coach based in Texas, Jeff Christensen. Christensen served as an advisor to Davis in the past, and the two are close. Also of note is that Davis runs the same wide open, tempo system that Williams had at Milton (Fla.) High School. And last year at North Texas, Davis’ offense led the nation in first down offense, scoring offense (44.8 ppg) and total offense (504.3 ypg), while also ranking in the top 25 in passing offense (second/323.2 pg), team passing efficiency (third/174.31), completion percentage (ninth/70.0 pct.), passing yards per completion (10th/14.1), red zone offense (14th/91.9 pct.) and 3rd down conversions (24th/46.4 pct.).

Staying at Miami was also tempting in its own right, as Williams had a great relationship with offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson and has spent the last three years learning all the ins and outs of the system.

Williams has two starts in his Cane career from his freshman year, including a win over Clemson. He struggled mightily in UM’s bowl game that closed out the 2024 season – he played the second half and completed five of 14 passes for 26 yards with an interception. But he played very well at other times. In all he’s completed 73 of 116 career passes (62.9 percent) for 813 yards with four TDs and two INTs.

Williams’ Miami career didn’t work out the way he hoped.

Now it’s on to the next.

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