Why did Cam Ward pick the Miami Hurricanes and how much can he elevate Miami's offense?
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00:00 Yeah, on Saturday night, the bat signal came out at 630 and you know, everyone's wondering,
00:07 wait, what is this? Is this Talia Tungu-Vailoa? Is this a safety? Well, we actually did get
00:16 another safety late last week. Isaiah Taylor, Jason Taylor's son is coming. A lot of people
00:21 were kind of thrown off by the Saturday night bat signal. Is this a 2025 player? Is this a
00:26 high school junior? And it turns out to be the guy that we waited for almost the entire month
00:33 of December for the Washington state transfer quarterback, who back on January 1st announced
00:40 that he was declaring for the NFL draft. And you know, I even told you guys a couple of days after
00:47 January 1st, I'm not trying to take credit for predicting this. So I'm not one of those guys
00:52 who's like, I told you all along it. I definitely had my doubts, but we did tell you a couple of
00:57 days after January 1st, when Ward announced he was declaring for the NFL, we did note to you on
01:03 this show, guys, there could still be something going on here. He's not hired an NFL agent yet,
01:08 which means he's not forfeited his eligibility. He could be keeping the door open. We told you,
01:14 I'd heard from an Auburn insider within the last couple of weeks that Auburn was still trying to
01:18 keep an open dialogue with Ward. We've come to find out that Miami, they weren't checking in on
01:23 him every single day, but they were checking in on Ward weekly. They kept the lines of communication
01:28 open and Ward, who was actually working out with a private quarterback coach, someone who trains a
01:34 lot of NFL quarterbacks and prospective NFL quarterbacks within the past couple of weeks.
01:38 So he was preparing, didn't take the step of getting the agent, but Ward was preparing himself
01:44 physically for all the pre-draft stuff, had accepted an invite to the East West Shrine game.
01:49 Obviously, if you don't actually get there, you're not forfeiting your eligibility quite yet. And
01:54 on Saturday, Ward, his father talked openly about it. I think they realized that he may end up being
02:01 a fourth round pick. So the opportunity was there. Play another year in college, play at Miami,
02:08 a team that has a lot of talent outside of the quarterback position right now. Give yourself
02:12 a chance to raise your draft stock and give yourself a chance to be part of something,
02:17 hopefully special in college for another year. So ultimately Ward decided, and of course,
02:23 we know had a very competitive NIL offer and opportunities from Miami. We know he's meshed
02:28 very well with Shannon Dawson, has meshed very well with Mario Cristobal and the other coaches
02:32 on the staff. We talked a few weeks ago, several weeks ago about how much fun his Miami visit seemed
02:39 to be. The trip to prime one 12, uh, you know, Rick Ross showing up to that visit, Rohan Marley,
02:45 a bunch of Miami players showing up to that visit at prime one 12. So it turns out Miami was where
02:50 his heart was all along. And what an opportunity for Miami. Um, this adds obviously a lot of
02:56 pressure for this coming season, because you don't add a guy like cam Ward for one year.
03:02 You don't do that thinking, well, we're probably not going to be very good next year. No,
03:05 you make a move like this because you're thinking this team can contend, right? And we're going to
03:10 talk about how much better cam Ward can make the Miami hurricanes. Here's how much better Ward
03:16 thinks he can makes Miami. Uh, this is what he said to the athletic after deciding against the
03:23 NFL draft to come down and be a Miami hurricane. He said, they've got a lot of people returning
03:27 on offense and defense with the portal guys they've got coming in and the recruiting class
03:33 they had, I easily think Miami can get to the CFP next year.