Revealed: What Cam Ward Told Jeremiah Smith About The Miami Hurricanes On National Signing Day
How close did the Miami Hurricanes get to landing Smith and Ward together?
This will go down as one of the most memorable “what if’s” in Miami Hurricanes history.
Ultimately, Miami didn’t land top wide receiver Jeremiah Smith or top transfer quarterback Cam Ward. Smith elected to maintain his pledge to Ohio State, while Ward declared for the NFL Draft on New Year’s Day.
A new piece by Chris Hummer on 247 Sports highlights how close Miami seemingly came to landing them both.
Hummer was given details from Jeremiah Smith concerning the last hours of national signing day. While Smith had confirmed his Ohio State commitment about Noon, he didn’t submit in his papers to make things official until late in the evening. During that time, his NIL agent was checking the Ohio State papers to make sure all the terms were in line.
Word came out that Smith was still unsigned, and Miami shot their shot. But not just Miami… undecided transfer quarterback Cam Ward also gave Smith a call.
Hummer wrote:
So with Smith’s national letter of intent in limbo, Miami didn’t sit idly. They pounced. Hurricanes wide receiver coach Kevin Beard reached out. So did Miami head coach Mario Cristobal and the program’s executive director Dennis Smith. On top of all of those pitches, Smith added that the Hurricanes also contacted out to his agency and re-up their offer in an effort to sign him.
But probably the most interesting phone call of the night came from a quarterback not yet linked with anybody: Washington State transfer Cameron Ward.
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Ward announced for the NFL Draft on Jan. 1, but before then he had been part in a month-long transfer portal recruitment that featured Miami and Florida State among others. Ward called Smith during the chaos of that nine-hour stretch. They talked for 10 minutes. Smith remembers Ward telling him, “If you choose to go to Miami, I’m going to go there.”
Miami still managed to land a top wide receiver class for 2024 with Joshisa Trader, Ny Carr, and Chance Robinson. However, the quarterback issue is still in limbo after Ward elected to enter the NFL Draft.
