Cam Ward earns first national honor with Miami Hurricanes after dominant game vs. Florida

Quarterback Cam Ward’s big performance in the Miami Hurricanes’ season-opening win has earned him some national recognition.

Ward on Tuesday was named the Maxwell Award Player of the Week.

Ward on Saturday completed 26 of 35 passes for 385 yards and three touchdowns against one interception while also rushing for 33 yards on three carries.

According to ESPN, the last Miami quarterback before Ward to throw at least 300 yards and three touchdowns in a season opener was Ken Dorsey in 2001 against Penn State. UM won the national title that season.

“It was calming,” Hurricanes offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said of Ward’s performance. “He’s comfortable out there. You can tell. He does a really good job of protecting plays when the play isn’t there and extending the play. That’s the one thing — in practice, whistles get blown and you don’t really get to see the extensions of plays a lot of practice. In the game, it’s different because you’ve got to get them down, and he did do a good job of extending plays in certain times. ... That ability to just, just to create some space and let the play develop is crucial.”

Offensive line paves the way

One major factor that helped Ward to his success was a dominant performance by Miami’s offensive line.

Ward was rarely pressured by the Gators’ defense and on multiple occasions had more than enough time to make just about any play he needed.

“It was talked about the whole week before the game — we we’re going to strike, we’re going to push them, we’re not going to finish until we set the tone,” sophomore right rackle Francis Mauigoa said. “We’re the offensive linemen, and we set the tone for the whole offense, for the whole team. We want to chase down dudes and we want to push the pile and set a standard for the whole team.”

The Hurricanes returned three starters from last season’s offensive line in left tackle Jalen Rivers, right guard Anez Cooper and right tackle Mauigoa. Indiana transfer Zach Carpenter started at center, while redshirt sophomores Ryan Rodriguez and Matt McCoy split time at left guard. Rodriguez left the game in the second half with what coach Mario Cristobal said he suspected was a sprained ankle.

The group’s ability to dominate the trenches led to Miami racking up 529 yards of offense and averaging 7.7 yards per play. Of their 69 plays run on Saturday against Florida, only two went for negative yardage.

“Going into this game, we just had the mindset of we prepared well for this team,” Rivers said. “We just executed well. We know we have a quarterback that he’s going to find his receivers. It might take eight to 10 seconds, so we’ve got to keep blocking.”

More honors

Ward, Carpenter and defensive back Jaden Harris were all given weekly honors by the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Ward is the ACC Quarterback of the Week, Carpenter the Offensive Lineman of the Week and Harris the Defensive Back of the Week.