By Scott Salomon
Just when you thought Christmas was over and all the presents were opened and the trees were put away, Mario Cristobal said hold my beer. Super Mario flipped quarterback Cameron Ward from the National Football League Draft to playing his senior season at Miami.
Cristobal has been known to flip recruits before signing day. Those flips are typically from top Blue Blood schools such as Ohio State, Florida State and the like. For the first time in the two years that Cristobal has been at Miami, he flipped a player from the NFL Draft.
Ward, 6-2, 223 pounds, who threw for 3,736 yards and 25 touchdowns last season for the Washington State Cougars, entered the transfer portal and toyed with the idea of submitting his name for the NFL Draft. He was quickly recruited by Oregon, Ohio State, Florida State and Miami.
After the season Ward had an official visit with Miami and they were thought to be the leader to obtain Ward’s services, until Ward announced prior to the New Year that he was going to go pro.
There was a catch. He never signed with an agent and never submitted his name to the NFL, all the while maintaining his collegiate eligibility. Saturday night he committed to Miami and the Hurricanes finally get their star quarterback.
Mario flipped Ward from the NFL. It also helped that Ward was told that he got a Day 2 grade, which translated to him going in the second or third round. Thinking that another year in college, with the talent that Miami has coming in at the wide receiver position, Ward believes that he can be a first-round pick in 2025.
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When Ward visited with Miami, he dined at Prime 112, the finest steakhouse in South Beach and rapper Rick Ross was part of the dinner party in Ward’s honor.
Coffee is for closers. Cam Ward to the U. https://t.co/2N2GsnbAdw
— CanesInSight (@CanesInSight) January 14, 2024
Miami’s collective supposedly agreed to terms with Ward on an NIL package when he made his campus visit and the only remaining decision was whether he was going to stay in college or turn professional.
Offensive Coordinator Shannon Dawson has been known in collegiate circles for his Air Raid offense, but in his first year at Miami, he did not have the quarterback that could handle it. Now, with Ward, look for Miami to put up record numbers via the air.
The Air Raid offense is nothing new to Ward as this is what he is used to, thus, his swollen statistics.
Miami has receivers Xavier Restrepo, Ray Ray Joseph, and Jacolby George coming back. George’s roster spot might be up in the air after a recent traffic arrest in Volusia County, but look for him to return. Ward will also have top recruits JoJo Trader, Ny Carr and Chance Robinson coming in with sub 4.4 speed. Throw tight end Elija Lofton into the mix and you have the makings of a record setting offense.
Look for the Air Raid to come back to Miami as the Canes finally have a quarterback that they can rely on to throw every route in the passing tree.
Miami also has a full compliment of running backs coming back such as Mark Fletcher Jr., Former Ohio State commit Jordan Lyle and Chris Wheatley-Humphrey will round out an explosive offense that gives Ward all of the toys that he needs to get to his elusive goal, and help bring an ACC Championship to Coral Gables, Florida.
It has been alleged that when Ward was on his visit in Miami, prior to Early Signing Day, he was on the phone with then-Ohio State commit Jeremiah Smith and told him that he would sign with Miami if he flipped from the Buckeyes. That would have been a huge get for Miami and would have rounded out an already star-studded wide receiver room.
🚨BREAKING🚨: #WSU transfer Quarterback Cam Ward has committed to #Miami!https://t.co/ZKf0znhqXI
Ward, who has been highly regarded as the top transfer portal quarterback this off-season, will arrive in Miami with one year of eligibility remaining. He has accumulated 13,874… pic.twitter.com/yRChrLXw85
— Geo Milian (@GeoMilian) January 14, 2024
Miami will also be a major player for top portal wide receivers, such as Alabama’s Isaiah Bond who is on a visit with Texas. Bond was teammates with one of Miami’s backup quarterbacks in a 7×7 league and visited with Miami before signing with the Crimson Tide out of high school.
This is the second portal quarterback to commit to Miami as former Albany signal caller Reese Poffenbarger committed to Miami earlier this month and was immediately pegged as the leader in the clubhouse to start under center for Miami when they open the 2024 season by taking on the Florida Gators at the Swamp, in August.
Look for Poffenbarger to go somewhere else as he will not win the starting job with the number one transfer portal quarterback committing to the Canes.
According to Manny Navarro of The Athletic, Poffenbarger completed 59.9 percent of his passes and led the FCS in passing yards (3,603) and touchdown throws (36) this past season in leading the Great Danes (11-4) to the national semifinals.
Navarro also spoke to Ward after he made his decision.
“They’ve got a lot of people returning on offense and defense,” he told Navarro and The Athletic. “With the portal guys they’ve got coming in and the recruiting class they had, I easily think Miami can get to the CFP next year.“
All of the rest of Miami’s returning quarterbacks, including Jacurri Brown and Emory Williams, along with incoming freshman signal caller Judd Anderson will be looking for the right to hold the clip board behind Ward.
Ward will take over for Tyler Van Dyke who went bust, entered the transfer portal and signed with Wisconsin.
Ward is the final piece of the puzzle for Miami who has been looking for a starting quarterback since the transfer portal opened. They were hoping to land Ward all along and now that dream has become a reality for Cristobal and Dawson.
