What are the biggest strengths and concerns that Cam Ward will bring to the Miami Hurricanes offense in 2024?
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00:00 Reviewing the film, I've imagined you've gone through hours of it.
00:03 What stands out most to you about Ward?
00:05 >> Yeah, hours of it stands out to most of me is his ball placement.
00:10 I think he's probably the most accurate 50/50 ball placement,
00:15 ball thrower that I've seen in a while.
00:18 So a lot of those times you see these highlights, everybody's posting on stuff.
00:21 And a lot of these guys really don't have that much separation, but
00:24 that ball is coming to the outside shoulder away from the defender where they
00:28 can't do anything, but just be there in the way.
00:32 So I think that ball placement is really what stands out for me.
00:35 He has a good arm, strong arm.
00:36 He could throw it 56 to 57 yards in the air, even from the opposite hash,
00:40 so that checks off arm strength.
00:42 But man, his ability to extend the plays but
00:46 look downfield, that's the it factor.
00:50 A lot of things that we haven't been used to as a Hurricanes fan,
00:55 a quarterback being able to break containment and extend the play.
01:01 The last few years, not that that's a problem with TBD, but
01:03 he's the type of quarterback where once that play concept is it, it's it.
01:07 There's no off script play coming on.
01:10 So now a defender and a defense that put so much pressure on them because now they
01:14 could do everything right during the passing concept.
01:16 And then here comes Cam breaking containment.
01:19 And next thing you know, it didn't matter what you did the first two seconds of
01:22 the play, three seconds of the play.
01:23 Now you got a guy breaking containment and he's looking at fire downfield.
01:27 >> That's awesome.
01:28 Now on the flip side, are there any potential concerns you see?
01:32 A lot of people will bring up he does fumble a lot.
01:35 Now I also feel like, hey, you get him behind arguably the best offensive line
01:39 he's ever played for cuz he didn't have the best protection the last couple years.
01:43 I would expect the fumble numbers to come down.
01:45 Is that or anything else concerning to you?
01:48 >> Yeah, so 14 fumbles, that screams, okay, we have to focus on ball security.
01:53 I do agree, the offensive line he was running for
01:56 his life at times at Washington State.
01:58 No matter what the excuses, you can't put the ball on the ground 14 times.
02:02 It just is what it is.
02:04 Seven interceptions versus how much past temps he had, that's fine.
02:08 I don't really care for the number of interceptions.
02:10 I've seen a couple of them, they're off drop passes, couple got tipped.
02:14 It is what it is.
02:14 But the fumble in 14 times, obviously didn't lose all 14.
02:19 Two hands on the football,
02:20 cuz you got a quarterback who likes to extend plays.
02:22 He likes to make magic happen.
02:24 And then you can get in trouble cuz if you don't feel that pressure coming from
02:27 the backside.
02:28 So that's why he got into those fumbles.
02:29 Obviously, I think the offensive line will help.
02:32 But he didn't have a running game to lean on in Washington State.
02:36 He was that entire team and that offense, their receivers and him.
02:39 So the offensive line is gonna help them.
02:41 But being able to protect Cam by handing the ball off to Mark Fletcher or
02:45 Henry Parrish or AJ Allen.
02:46 Just being able to get those type of yards by handing them off and
02:49 not everything being on his shoulders.
02:51 I feel like he won't have to play as much hero ball.
02:54 He played a lot of hero ball at Washington State.
02:55 You could tell he was the best player on the team.
02:57 And that's just what you have to do.
02:59 So I think cutting back on some hero ball and then the ability to lean on the run
03:02 game will kind of mitigate some of those, at least fumbles in my opinion.