Cam Ward not impressed by Florida crowd noise, advises fans when to cheer
Cam Ward wasn’t fazed at all after stepping into The Swamp on Saturday night. The Miami quarterback threw for 385 yards and three touchdowns to one interception as the Hurricanes rolled to a 41-17 victory over Florida.
Ward spoke postgame about the crowd noise, and had a defiant answer when asked whether it was the loudest environment it had played in during his college career. He adamantly defended the crowds at several Pac-12 stadiums when he played for Washington State, saying they were much louder.
He even went a step further to offer advice to Gators fans on when is the most opportune time to cheer.
“It wasn’t (the loudest),” Ward said. “I played at USC. USC wasn’t packed, but it was louder than this. I played at Oregon and it was louder than this. The Pac-12 is misspoken for. That’s where I believe real football is played. Coming from Washington (State), Washington is one of the loudest environments I’ve played.
“Some advice to the fans: I would say if you’re gonna be loud, be loud when we’re huddling. You can’t just be loud when we break the huddle. By that time, there’s no point. We hear the play and we communicated already. But it was a good atmosphere to play in and I was just excited that we were able to get a victory.”
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Miami was in control from the start and never trailed in the game. The Hurricanes scored on their very first drive as Ward found Cam McCormick for a nine-yard touchdown pass, his first of the game.
They would go on to lead 24-10 at halftime before opening up the leading to an even wider margin to start the third. Miami added on two more touchdowns, including an incredible throw from Ward to Jacolby George in the back of the end zone to go up 38-10.
Ward continued to lambast the Florida crowd in his postgame presser, even claiming that he face a tougher environment from his coaches simulating crowds in practice.
“Practice was way louder than this,” he said. “You have a speaker blowing in your ear from five yards behind you. It’s kind of hard to hear stuff. So the coaches and coaching staff, they prepared us for this moment. They prepared us for this game.
“We’re gonna have another big time road game eventually on the road where the crowd’s going to be sold out. We’re going to continue to play our brand of football, be physical and not let the crowd noise distract us and continue to make plays day in and day out.”
Miami moves on from the win against Florida to face another in-state team in Florida A&M next week at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday.