Ward has answer for those who thinks he quit on Miami

FORT WORTH, Texas — While Cam Ward hasn’t decided if he will throw at the NFL combine next week, the quarterback knows how he will answer any scouts or team personnel who ask him if he quit on the Miami Hurricanes team by not finishing his final game with them.

“Okay, you’re either going to draft me or you’re not,” Ward said Monday night before receiving the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top college quarterback. “If you don’t draft me, that’s your fault. You’ve got to remember you’re the same team that’s got to play me for the rest of my career, and I’ll remember that.”

Ward was showered with online criticism suggesting that he quit on the Hurricanes after he didn’t play the second half of the Pop-Tarts Bowl in December, a 42-41 loss to Iowa State. He broke the NCAA Division I record for career touchdown passes before halftime.

The quarterback, who could be the first player taken in the NFL draft in April, said the decision not to play in the second half of that bowl game was predetermined by he and the entire coaching staff.

“I just think we all got what we needed out of it. They seen things that they think they need to work on … for this season coming up. And they also knew, you know, what I had on the line,” Ward said. “We feel like we’re doing what’s best for the program and myself. I mean, it was a hard decision, especially when, you know, some guys on our team didn’t play who I thought should have played. It was also, you know, those guys thought about their future the same way I thought about mine.”

Miami coach Mario Cristobal has defended Ward, and last month called the accusations of him quitting on the team “a false narrative.”

“If I could do it again, I’d do it the same way,” Ward said Monday, though he later added, “I wish we could have ended up winning the game. If we had won the game, they wouldn’t have said nothing. And so that’s usually how it goes. And, you know, you just got to take it on the chin and just keep pushing.”

With the first of his three TD passes in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, when he threw for 190 yards to push Miami to a 31-28 halftime lead, Ward broke the Division I — FBS and FCS — record at 156 touchdowns, one more than Houston’s Case Keenum (2007-11). Miami used Emory Williams at quarterback in the second half, and has since added former Georgia quarterback Carson Beck as a transfer.

Ward finished his college career with 158 TD passes and his 18,189 passing yards — 6,908 at Incarnate Word, 6,968 at Washington State and 4,313 at Miami — is third-most in NCAA history behind only Case Keenum and Dillon Gabriel. In his lone season with Miami, Ward set single-season school record for yards, completions (305), touchdown passes (39) and completion percentage — both for a season and a career, at 67.2%.

As for the upcoming combine, Ward said he hadn’t come up with a plan of what he would do next week in Indianapolis. He does plan to throw at Miami’s pro day.

The O’Brien Award ceremony came about three weeks after Ward accepted the Manning Award. He followed Jayden Daniels, the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner who also won both of those quarterback awards before being the second overall draft pick last year and then leading Washington the NFC Championship Game..

“To see him succeed,” Ward said, “is motivating for not only myself but all of the other quarterbacks.”