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Where does Cam Ward rank in UM history?

Really hard to rank for 4 reasons:

1. His body of work will be for only one season
2. It’s really hard to compare eras when the game today is drastically different than yesterday. The defensive rules are much more QB friendly today than yesterday
3. Out of all of our top QBs (Dorsey, Walsh, Torreta, Kelly, Kozar, Testaverde…..Kaaya (j/k), Ward played by far the weakest competition & it’s not close.
4. We’ve become way too enamored w/ stats in today’s sports era where winning used to be the criteria, & while Cam’s stats look better than any QB in Miami history, the eye test also says he put us in some very precarious situations that could’ve easily resulted in losses.
 
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Lots of ways to look at this

1. If I could build an all time team to play against other schools all time greats, I’m taking Ward. I
2. If I’m looking at greatest Miami career, I think Dorsey would be hard to beat. Dude was a bad take (taking FSU over Miami) and a bad flag from winning 3 nattys.
3. Who was the greatest in terms of influence (guys that changed the culture, lifted to new levels, etc)… This is the question I have been thinking… I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s so I have a bias towards that time frame - so for me I think of guys like Bratton/Highsmith, Edge (that game against UCLA), Ed Reed, Ray Lewis

This is where I hope we can look back at this season as a turning point and giving Cam his flowers as the guy who really ignited the resurrection of the Canes. If we had got Mateer, than I think he would have been on his way. I hope we don’t look back at this season as an outlier.
 
Rellyrell said:
Really hard to rank for 4 reasons:

1. His body of work will be for only one season
2. It’s really hard to compare eras when the game today is drastically different than yesterday. The defensive rules are much more QB friendly today than yesterday
3. Out of all of our top QBs (Dorsey, Walsh, Torreta, Kelly, Kozar, Testaverde…..Kaaya (j/k), Ward played by far the weakest competition & it’s not close.
4. We’ve become way too enamored w/ stats in today’s sports era where winning used to be the criteria, & while Cam’s stats look better than any QB in Miami history, the eye test also says he put us in some very precarious situations that could’ve easily resulted in losses.
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👆👆👆👆

This, this, this, this….asaaaaannnnnd…this.
 
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kanecrazed said:
Its hard to compare players from other eras because of different coaching and supporting players.

For me, Cam is the best QB ever to play here. He by far had the best single season statistics by a UM QB, period. Its tough to overlook no post season play though.

One season doesnt make a career. Does he belong on the Mt.Rushmore of UM QB's? Possibly.

When I think UM QB though, Dorsey is always the first to come to mind. One natty, robbed of second one and screwed for the opportunity to play for a third one. He's also top 3 in almost every career statistical category.
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I agree with all of that and wanted to compliment what you said.

I can't put him number one though. This offense, while prolific, it wasn't well run IMHO. We asked a lot of him, even when we didn't have to. He also put us in some situations which he fortunately worked himself out of in most but not all instances.

To be clear, I have ZERO complaints about Cam. **** of a player and great addition to what we needed this year. As you said, different eras are hard to compare and I agree. You wouldn't see this offense called 20 or 39 years ago.
 
Hurricane23 said:
The other greats also had elite weapons everywhere, and a elite defense. If Cam even had a defense as good as our 2017 or 18 teams we’re probably starring down our 6th title
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Maybe.

But, as great as he is, he also could toss up one of those cross-body floaters back over the middle that gets pick-sixed. And that kind of thing can be really costly in a tight game. Especially against top level playoff competition.

🤷‍♂️
 
HughFreezemyCuckoldYesPlz said:
If you put Cam Ward on any of our 80s/early 90s teams from 86 onwards we win the nc every year through and including 1994.

If you put him on any our late 90s/early 2000 teams we win the nc from 1999-2003.

I would have loved to see him with the playmaker, or HI-/LT, or Wayne/Moss/Dre. It would have been even more uber lethal.

He’s number #1.
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Those are some **** good teams u mentioned! If he was on the 2017 team we win! Imagine him throwing to Ahmed Richards with that D! Imagine him in 2014 with Duke Johnson 😳 im sure there are a couple other years but those 2 years stand out! We've had horrible QB play think Cam Ward coulda won 10 games with just about any team since 02! And a Air Raid Offense of course
 
UMercury21 said:
yes bc TOP is so important when it takes teams 30 seconds to score on our defense.
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Our D didn't give up jack because we scored fast, or slow. They didn't give up points because we threw, or ran. They gave up points because they suck. When your D sucks, you tell your O to score as much as possible, no matter how.

Score however, whenever you can, and to **** with the clock, or what the other teams may or may not do on O. I brought up the clock to show that our O held the ball enough for our D to get rest. It didn't matter.
 
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SouthsideAtl said:
Didn’t get to see the older guys like VT and Bernie sooo I’m putting Cam #1
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Those guys with today's short passing game would've been absolutely lethal. That's why others have noted and I agree, it's tough to compare ages. You can't compare just stats either, all QB's tend to be more prolific these days. The exception to that are some of the Texas Tech, BYU, Houston, etc QB's with true air raid offenses. They played it like it was a video game.
 
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