Cam Ward’s ‘crazy story’ led him to the Miami Hurricanes. Will it end in greatness?

As Cam Ward reflects on the story he has chronicled to this point, he can’t help but smile. He was always confident he would get to this point, even if the path was longer than expected and the odds may have been against him.

The quarterback thinks back to when he was a kid — 4, maybe 5 years old — when he would pick up a basketball, set up cones around the house and “dribble myself to sleep.” The childhood dream of making it to the NBA switched to goals of the NFL in due time, but the passion, dedication and commitment to his craft never wavered. The trials and tribulations and winding path to success that came with it have helped him grow physically, mentally and emotionally.

“I’ve been blessed with this journey,” Ward said. “I don’t take anything for granted, but I take advantage of every opportunity I get.”

So watch closely as the final chapter of Ward’s college football career unfolds. It begins Aug. 31 when the No. 19 Miami Hurricanes face the Florida Gators in Gainesville.

It’s the last passage of a tale that began five years ago when there was uncertainty if Ward’s story would be written at all. At that point, Ward was nowhere to be found on the high school recruiting rankings when he graduated from Texas’ Columbia High. He was a zero-star quarterback recruit who had just one offer to play college football at the Football Championship Subdivision level.

“And now,” Ward said, “I’m here.”

Here is the University of Miami, his third home in his college football journey that started at FCS Incarnate Word and continued with two years at Washington State before finally landing in Coral Gables this offseason.

Here is finally being recognized for the talent that he knew he had all along but took awhile to properly showcase. Ward has already been named the ACC Preseason Player of the Year, tabbed to a slew of award watch lists and is viewed as a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate. Hurricanes fans are looking at him to be the savior for a program that has not seen a national championship since 2001.

And here is where Ward will author the conclusion of his collegiate career. It’s an ending that will come on his own terms after he decided to delay his shot at the NFL for one more season on the college gridiron.

“It’s a crazy story,” Ward said, “but I’m not close to being done yet.”

Ward’s ‘big decision’

Once upon a time, though, Ward’s story on the college level appeared to be done. On Jan. 1, Ward announced he was declaring for the NFL Draft. He seemed ready for the next chapter of his football career.

Until ... he wasn’t.

Twelve days later — and two days before the deadline to officially enter the NFL Draft — Ward announced he was committing to the University of Miami.

“I was really close to going all the way because I felt ready for NFL,” Ward said, “but at the end of the day, after talking to all the college coaches that I did, I told them that I wanted to come back to college, too. I love playing college football. There’s just something about college football makes it so fun.”

It was a decision he wrestled with throughout the offseason. There were many early morning conversations during the process in the Ward household between the quarterback and his parents, with Ward bouncing back and forth between what he wanted to do on any given day.

Some days, he felt ready to go pro.

Other days, he felt staying in college was the proper course of action.

As he teeter-tottered between his choices, Ward would ask his parents the question: “What would y’all do if you were me?”

Each time they received that query, they gave their son the same response.

“You earned the right to be in this position,” his dad, Calvin Ward said. “You have to do what’s best for you. ... We’re here to support what you do.”

“It was a big decision for him,” added Ward’s mom, Patrice, “but Cameron always knew that Calvin and I supported whatever he decided to do. He just had that inner feeling.”

When Ward cleared his mind, he decided to bet on himself one more time and stay in college for another season.

It had already worked out to this point.

After being overlooked in high school, he completed 63 percent of his passes for 6,908 yards and 71 touchdowns against 14 interceptions in two years at FCS Incarnate Word to begin his college career. That success presented him with an opportunity to transfer to Washington State and see how he would fair against Power 5 competition. In two years with the Cougars, Ward completed 63 percent of his passes for another 6,963 yards and 48 touchdowns against 16 interceptions.

Washington State, however, went just 12-13 in his two seasons there and the college football landscape was undergoing a massive change. The Pac-12 was all but over with every school outside of Washington State and Oregon State jumping ship and joining another conference. Ward wanted to make sure he was best positioned to succeed in his final season.

And with that, Ward chose the Hurricanes who, despite a lackluster 12-13 record of their own during the past two seasons, have loaded up their roster and should be a contender to compete for the Atlantic Coast Conference title and make the expanded 12-team playoff this year. In addition to Ward, the Hurricanes are deep at running back and wide receiver, have a veteran offensive line and a defense that should hold its own against the best.

“The biggest thing for me is there was still food left on the table for me,” Ward said. “I accomplished a lot of things at the FCS level, I haven’t accomplished things I know I’m capable of at the Power 5 level. I feel like the NFL isn’t going anywhere. God put me in this position to be a Miami Hurricane. I think it’s been the best of both worlds.”

‘An NFL quarterback at Miami’

There have been times during practices this fall when defensive lineman Elijah Alston thought he had Ward where he wanted him.

He thought wrong.

“That’s a battle to get to him,” Alston said. “Him in the pocket, he throws dimes. It’s like even when you think you’re pressuring Cam, you’re possibly not really pressuring Cam when he throws the ball because when you look down the field, all you hear is a blur in practice or you’ll see something that’s unbelievable or somebody’s making a crazy catch where he placed the ball.”

Wide receiver Jacolby George, one of the many players on the receiving end of those Ward catches, summed up Ward’s presence in much simpler terms.

“I feel like we have an NFL quarterback at Miami,” George said.

The Hurricanes are hoping that will be their X-factor this season as they make the push to rejoin the upper tier of the college football ranks. So often in college football a team lives or dies by the success of its quarterback. He needs to be able to not only physically be able to make the plays, but mentally be able to adjust on the fly.

“He’s smart,” center Zach Carpenter said. “He knows every aspect of this offense. Me and him meet quite a lot so that we can be on the same page because in our communication, we kind of have to know what each other is thinking, what we’re doing. So, to me, his intelligence is probably one of the greatest I’ve been around in a quarterback.”

But Ward’s production on the field is just part of it. How he is helping guide the team off the field is just as important.

And Ward possesses many of the attributes required to do just that.

His ability to lead the team became immediately evident during spring practice. It has only evolved since the team reconvened to start fall camp.

“When he talks, everyone listens,” tight end Cam McCormick said. “He’s a leader and when he does say something, all the guys listen and do what he says. I think outside of football, he does a great job of just bringing everybody together, getting guys together, hanging out, just building that camaraderie with each other off the field. That’s important, so that when we get on the field, it’s all trust. When we get out there and he says something, it’s like ‘Hey, listen to him and let’s do it. Let’s get it done.’”

And when things go wrong, don’t expect Ward to get frazzled either.

“He’s really even-keeled,” receiver Isaiah Horton said. “He doesn’t get too high. He doesn’t get too low. When adversity hits — and adversity’s going to hit; it’s football — he’s just even. That’s what I really appreciate about him because some teams in college football have quarterbacks that are all over the place. Cam’s the same person — good play, bad pay, it doesn’t matter. You know what you can expect out of him.”

But don’t mistake that steadiness for being stoic. While Ward likes to live a low-key life — a perfect day away from the football field is either fishing or staying at home with his 125-pound Rottweiler Uno Chop Ward — he likes to have fun, too. He trash talks teammates regularly during practice. He’s a prankster.

And Ward has the internal drive to maximize his potential. He’s one of the first at the Hurricanes’ practice facility every day and one of the last to leave — Ward’s parents use the Life360 app to track him from back home in Texas and said the he’s usually at the Hurricanes’ athletic center before 5 a.m. daily, goes home around 3 p.m. for an hour and then is back at the athletic center.

“He spends every waking minute in that building,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said. “I can’t recall the last time I didn’t see him in the building. He’s the ultimate student of the game.”

He has, in his words, a “don’t give a [expletive]” mentality on the field. He strives for perfection with every play. It’s that trust in himself that helped him pave his path.

“He’s written his own story,” Patrice Ward said.

It’s a crazy story, but he’s not close to being done yet.