The Miami Hurricanes plan to adapt their offense to suit Cam Ward and help prepare him for the NFL. Expect more pro style concepts.
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00:00 Emmy has a lot of injuries. I mean, football's a violent sport. There's a lot of injuries nationwide. But part of part
00:05 of the benefit of when you can stack recruiting classes, like the Class of 2023 Top 7 class in the country, a lot of
00:12 those guys played last year, a lot more of them are going to play this coming season. And then you stack on top of that a
00:18 Top 4 class in the country. That's how you overcome depth issues, right? When you can start actually stacking high-level
00:25 three-star to five-star talent at multiple different positions. And sometimes a guy coming off your bench is a former
00:31 four-star or even five-star recruit in the Pancake Honcho. That's how you're built to overcome injuries. You know,
00:37 Miami's got a ton of guys in their running back room. But yes, the last couple of years, 2022, even more so, you've had a
00:44 ton of injuries. You had so many injuries in 2022 that you had to start playing walk-ons at running back. You were a
00:49 little bit better prepared for that last year. You're going to be even more prepared for that this year.
00:53 Right. But when I say injuries, the tight end, Arroyo, out for practically two seasons. And we bring in Riley Williams,
01:04 who played, but he didn't impress me. Now he's got a big upside. This is his big time right now. Gain weight, gain
01:11 strength, working on the jugs machine, catching those balls. He dropped a lot of balls. They're route running, but he
01:18 has the upside. So if those two guys are healthy and Williams has improved, that's a major help to a guy like Ward,
01:25 because he wants to play in a pro-style offense, which came up today. He wants to play. And it looks like Mario and
01:34 Dawson have agreed they're going to change their offense somewhat and gear it more towards the pro-style. That
01:39 includes tight ends. That includes receivers getting downfield. You hear that, Isaiah Horton? This is a big chance for
01:46 you now because they need a big time, big receiver. So we're going to be okay, assuming everybody's healthy. And
01:54 then you're factoring in what Ward can do. That's what gets me excited. The potential with a consistent quarterback,
02:01 not somebody where you go out there, you don't know from one point to the next, what Van Dyke was going to do. We
02:06 need a guy like this, who's got the veteran experience, knows what to do. And of course, he's a major threat.
02:14 Downfield, short, he can throw screens. Where's the screens in? And those are the things that he wants. I love the
02:22 idea that the kid tells the coaches, this is what I want. I love that idea. Because it just seemed like last year,
02:29 after the A&M game, Van Dyke and Dawson went into the tank. What happened?
02:34 Yeah, and a couple things that I'm so glad you brought up, the adaptation of the offense. I don't want anyone to
02:39 overreact to it and think that Dawson's just going to throw away his playbook and they're going to do something
02:44 completely different. It's not going to be a complete change. Like you said, Bruce, not going to be a complete
02:48 change. It's going to be an adaptation to incorporate more pro style into your offense. First of all, I'm sure
02:53 Mario Cristobal is happy about that, because that's very much in line with his background. Sounds like Cam Ward is
02:59 happy about that. In fact, that's what he wants, because that's going to better prepare him for the National
03:03 Football League. You got to remember, I mean, if Ward didn't think coming to Miami was going to help his draft
03:09 stock, he wouldn't be here. He would have stayed in the NFL draft. So he's looking at ways to put things on film
03:14 and to adapt for the NFL. And like you said, the possibility of getting the tight ends more involved and more
03:21 incorporated in the passing game is a really big one. So I'll just tell you guys, because I want to pull up the poll
03:27 results so far. I put this out there on X at Locked on Canes. And if you follow us at Locked on Canes, we will follow
03:34 you back on the app formerly known as Twitter. Because Bruce, if before Miami added Ward, if I were to assume
03:42 before that, that you would be going into the season with inexperienced guys competing for the starting job, I
03:48 mean, Poffenbarger has a lot of experience, but FCS experience, if it was Poffenbarger competing with Ja'Kari Brown
03:54 and Emery Williams, I probably would have set my expectations more along eight wins, maybe nine at the most, that
04:01 being around the ceiling, right? Adding Cam Ward, who's, you know, four years of starters experience, lit it up at
04:08 Washington State the last couple years. He actually threw for more yards last year than any quarterback in the
04:13 ACC, 3,700 plus. That's more yards than any ACC quarterback threw for.