Miami Hurricanes QB Cam Ward on Tuesday: "It’s time for us to take another step at Miami" with goal set at the playoffs and championship game

You want sky-high expectations for a Miami Hurricanes player? They don’t get much higher than what fans are looking for from star QB transfer Cam Ward. There’s talk of a Heisman Trophy – he’s eighth in preseason odds – and he’s likely to become the first Cane QB drafted in the first four rounds dating all the way back to Craig Erickson in 1992 (Ward was considered by many to be a fourth- or fifth-round pick had he gone pro this year).

Ward welcomes the expectations. Heck, no one has higher expectations than he does for himself.

“You are either going to succeed or you are going to fail,” he said at the team’s Tuesday media day. “I’m going to control what I can, and whatever the outcome is we’re going to run with it.”

Ward stresses that “we are not going to be a selfish team” as part of the key to winning.

“The selfish aspect, that’s the only thing that can afflict us – the less selfish we are, the better we will be,” he said. “It’s a fact: Every team that wins 10 plus football games, they are never a selfish team. We are not going to be one of those teams.”

And certainly he has the pieces around him to succeed, with top portal additions RB Damien Martinez, WR Sam Brown and center Zach Carpenter joining three returning OL starters (Jalen Rivers, Anez Cooper, Francis Mauigoa), top returning WRs Xavier Restrepo and Jacolby George, and the team finally has a healthy TE Elijah Arroyo set to join freshman H-back standout Elija Lofton.

“We all have one common goal: To win football games,” Ward said. “We believe that (we can win). … It’s time for us to take another step at Miami. I’m just glad I can have some input on it. I feel we’re putting ourselves in a perfect situation. They were a seven win team last year, I was a five win team. I feel we were meant to be together, honestly. I’m trying to win, they’re trying to win and hopefully we meet that goal we put out for ourselves.”

Ward also shared thoughts on some of his fellow playmakers, and it’s fair to say he has some high expectations.

He pointed to TE Elijah Arroyo, saying “He moves like a receiver. Someone 250 pounds running routes like he does isn’t common. … I know he’s going to make plays for us. He can run every route in the tree, run it to perfection.”

Ward said that he thinks George “is a 4.2 guy,” and that Restrepo, Horton and Brown “are going to make me look good.”

Ward also said he has an All-American left tackle, soon-to-be All-American right guard, All-American right tackle, I think an All-American center and All-American left guard.

Yes, he loves those guys up front.

“I know those guys up front are going to do the dirty work and are going to get the praise – and eat good,” Ward said.

Ward also was posed an unusual question today – if he has Rivers and Cooper hanging off a cliff and can only save one, who does he save?

“J-Riv,” Ward said to laughs.

Yes, Ward knows how to have some fun … and doesn’t sidestep things, including strange questions from reporters.

As for Ward’s background?

Well, he has quite the resume.

The 6-2, 221-pounder was No. 4 in passing yards in college football last season, finishing hitting on 66.7 percent of his throws for 3,732 yards (311.0 yards per game) with 25 TDs and seven INTs (adding eight rushing scores).  In 2022, Ward started every game for Washington State and hit on 64.4 percent of his passes for 3,231 yards with 23 TDs and nine interceptions (he added five rushing scores). In 2021 at Incarnate Word he was an FCS Second Team All-American and Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Year after completing 65.1 percent of his passes for 4,648 yards with 47 TD passes and 10 INTs (1 rushing score). And as a freshman there in 2020 he won the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman player in FCS – in six games he threw for 2,260 yards (60.4 percent completion rate) with 24 TDs and four INTs, adding two rushing scores.

“I feel I’m a different quarterback (from last year) from mindset-wise to leadership-wise, feel a lot has changed for me,” Ward said. “I wanted to be challenged, embraced the challenge and I’m excited for everyone to see what we are going to do during the season.

“We have a lot of talented guys on both sides of the ball.”

He chose to return to college after testing his NFL options … at one point leaning toward turning pro and saying he would change his mind almost every day before settling on playing at UM.

“I wanted to be somewhere I was really the only new piece as a whole, didn’t want to go somewhere that was getting changes left and right from players, the coaching staff,” Ward said. “Miami returned three starters at O line, Jacolby and X, the leading receivers from last year, a lot of guys on defense.”

Per Pro Football Focus, Ward graded out at a stellar 80.7 percent this past season (59.9 percent in 2022 and then 66.9 percent and 67.0 percent his prior two years at Incarnate Word). He was particularly deadly on deep throws last season with an elite 92.7 grade on throws of 20+ yards (he was 23-57 for 725 yards with 10 TDs and two INTs on those passes).

Now his goal is to provide explosive playmaking at Miami.

And coordinator Shannon Dawson’s system is a good fit for him.

“We know our end goal, what we want to accomplish,” Ward said. “We have to take it one step at a time. Look too far into the future, you miss the little stuff.”

The bottom line for Ward?

He’s all about winning.

“I’m tired of being a .500 team (7-6 and 5-7 record last two years at Washington State), am trying to win a lot of football games,” Ward said. “We are all going toward one common goal, and that’s to get a chance to play for the ACC championship, make a run to the playoff and hopefully get a chance to play in the national championship.”

*Ward said NIL money didn’t factor into his decision and said “The media portrays NIL money as you’re set. We’re not set. If people think we’re set off NIL money, I don’t know what’s going on through their heads. This does not set you for life. The more we can get consistently through our mind we have stuff to do, families to feed, the money is going to come in the long run. You look at the NFL, they’re not set till they get to that second contract realistically. … I don’t believe a player is set for life off NIL.”

*Ward says he’s met Cane legends Gino Torretta and Andre Johnson. A takeaway he got from Johnson? “You have to be that guy you want to be every day,” Ward said. “Really just have to make the most of every opportunity you get.”

*Ward says he grew up a Cam Newton/Michael Vick fan. “Nowadays I like to watch Aaron Rodgers and Pat Mahomes the most. They do the same but different things – Pat the way he can extend plays, keep his eyes downfield, way he can run the ball decisively, and Aaron at his age the way he moves in and out of the pocket, the platform he throws from, throws from confined spaces. That’s something I got way better at – you can’t overstride inside the pocket, and that was a big thing for me I got way better at this summer.” Ward said he worked hard on his deep ball accuracy prior to last season and showed improvement in that area last year.

*Ward says he’s taken on more of a vocal leadership role this year compared to his past college seasons. “We have the right pieces for the puzzle at every position, don’t lack anything at any spot on this roster,” he said.

*Ward said he didn’t truly learn football until last year, going through progressions and learning coverages – he had played in a run-based high school program.

“You have to be able to learn from other people’s reps, that’s what I got way better at,” Ward said. “Watching the twos tape and threes tape, a lot of busts offensively with routes and all that, the ones get a different look than the twos.”

*Ward says the concepts at Miami are similar to his prior programs and that some things he’s learned under Shannon Dawson. “I wish I’d run it years prior.”