A little after midnight on Sunday, hours after he dazzled a national audience in his Miami debut, Cameron Ward was already breaking down film of Florida A&M — the Hurricanes’ next opponent — when he called his parents to make sure they got home safe.
There was no big celebration after throwing 385 yards and three touchdowns in a dominant 41-17 win on the road at Florida. No relishing in the fact he immediately jumped up the Heisman Trophy gambling odds as a new favorite.
Instead it was back to work for Ward, who is far more used to being counted out than championed during a long, winding career that took him from Incarnate Word to Washington State and finally Miami.
“People can pat him on the back and tell him how great he is,” Calvin Ward, Cameron’s father, told CBS Sports. “He doesn’t hear it. He doesn’t want any pats on the back. All he wants to hear is for people to tell him he’s not good enough to play at this level.”
Ward has heard that plenty in his career. It powered him to the head of a Miami team that looks like a legitimate College Football Playoff contender in a wide-open Atlantic Coast Conference. There was little interest in the 6-foot-2 quarterback coming out of West Columbia, Texas, despite his parents taking him to football camps all over the country in an attempt to showcase his talents. He didn’t have much high school game film to show off his passing skills — that’s what happens when you only throw a handful of times in a Wing-T offense — and had to settle for FCS program Incarnate Word.
Fast forward to December 2023 when Ward was the hottest prospect available in the transfer portal following a stellar season at Washington State. Quarterback-needy teams saw a player who could immediately change their…
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