Belief
After getting 1 Division I offer out of high school, Cam Ward was drafted first overall. He might be the only one who isn't surprised.
Before we get to the NFL draft, we need to address the elephant in the room.
Or, the beaver.
Today is the day.
As you may know, I lost my ACC picks bet (again) with Andrea Adelson, and as punishment, I must now spend 24 hours straight inside a Buc-ee's.
So, today at 10 a.m., I'll walk into the Daytona, Florida location, grab some Beaver Nuggets, and begin an adventure for the ages.
You can follow along on social media channels (see bottom of email for links), where I'll be offering lots of behind-the-scenes insight.
You should also tune in to Inside ACCess tonight at 6 p.m. on ACC for a special hour-long episode from Buc-ee's. We'll be joined by Buc-ee's fan and Virginia QB Chandler Morris, ESPN's Dan Murphy and NFL expert Field Yates, breaking down this year's draft and how ACC prospects might fare in their new homes.
It's going to be a ton of fun. Hope you'll be a part of the journey.
Cam Ward and the power of belief
Cam Ward was taken with the first pick in the NFL draft last week.
If you watched Ward play in 2024, that shouldn't come as much of a surprise. He was genuinely one of the small handful of players I've seen over the course of my career who single-handedly reshaped the entire vibe/belief/personality of a team. He took a program bereft of success for the better part of 20 years and made coaches, fans and teammates into believers. Miami's ultimate failure was simply not having Ward on the field when it mattered most.
But to understand Ward's larger story -- which, by the way, should have been the story everyone was talking about on Thursday and Friday -- offers a better perspective on Ward's position as the top pick.
Coming out of high school, where he ran a Wing T offense, Ward was an unranked recruit with zero FBS offers.
He landed at FCS Incarnate Word -- his only offer -- and, in the abridged 2020 season, he threw for 24 touchdowns in six games. A year later, he threw for nearly 4,700 yards and tossed 47 touchdowns. Clearly a lot of better programs missed on a true talent.
But even when Ward hit the portal after 2021, it wasn't as if schools were beating down his door. He ended up at Washington State -- about as low on the Power Five totem pole as you get (and technically no longer Power Five). Again, he was terrific -- though a tad turnover prone -- but proved his worth. And he might've stayed there, he said, if not for the dissolution of the Pac-12.
Instead, he flirted with the NFL draft, where evaluators pegged him as a late-round prospect, then landed at Miami.
Think of how many people saw Cam Ward over the years and dismissed him -- from FCS programs to Power Five schools to the NFL. They all saw him play and thought -- meh.
But Ward never doubted. Not once.
At last year's ACC Kickoff, I recounted his wild ride through college football and asked him what seemed like a reasonable question: What would you have said when you were leaving high school if I told you you’d eventually be starting for Miami and playing in a rivalry game on national TV?
Ward's answer: “I’d believe it.”
At that same event, I interviewed each of the QBs there from Texas* and asked them for their Mt. Rushmore of Texas high school QBs. It generated a diverse list of obvious names (Kyler Murray, Drew Brees) and niche favorites (Desmond White, Riley Dodge). But only one guy picked himself. Cam Ward.
I genuinely cannot fathom having the confidence that Ward possesses, to go through life believing so unflinchingly in my own ability. If anything, my success in life is a product of an overwhelming belief that I'm actually *not* good enough and must work especially hard to keep fooling everyone. So, honesty, I have no real understanding of how Ward's mind works. It's a mystery to me. A fascinating mystery.
Of course, it's very easy to conflate confidence with ego. It'd be easy to hear Ward call himself one of the five best high school QBs in Texas history and say, "He sounds like an arrogant jerk." But I've never heard anyone say that. Why? Because he never comes off that way, even when he's saying the most overtly self-congratulatory things.
It's funny because that other QB who got all the headlines this past week has certainly been accused of arrogance, of hyping himself incessantly even if the tape doesn't exactly support the claim. Shedeur Sanders is confident, too, and I think it's fair to say a sizable portion of the audience -- media, NFL scouts, coaches -- viewed his confidence as ego.
How can it work so much differently for Ward than for Sanders?
There's a Mark Twain quote I've always loved, and one I often use as a guideline for how much I like, personally, very successful people.
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
That, to me, feels like the epitome of Ward. He didn't keep his confidence to himself. He shared it at every turn. He went to Miami, to a program defined for two decades by what it failed to do, and he convinced everyone not that he was so great that he could life the Canes above the fray. Instead, he sold an entire team on the belief that they, too, could be great.
I don't know how Ward will do in the NFL. As an Eagles fan who was utterly furious at Howie Roseman's selection of Jalen Hurts, I'm in no position to even guess.
But here's what I do know: You're a fool to bet against Cam Ward. And no matter what his career ultimately looks like, there will be a host of players who are better having played with him.
Portal Kombat
I noted that Dan Murphy will be joining us on Inside ACCess today. Be sure to read his fantastic piece on ESPN.com that goes inside one player's decision to enter the portal or not and the folks who make the entire portal machine run.
My biggest takeaway from it: Agents are... not all great.
I'm very appreciative that good agents are looking out for their clients, that they're getting money into the hands of players who deserve it, and that they're filling a needed void for player representation in an industry that's used to telling players what to think rather than actually listening to them.
But good lord, this story sure felt like something out of "Boiler Room" or "Wolves of Wallstreet."
By 9 p.m., the A&P team is slouched in chairs around a conference room table covered with takeout trays of barbecue. People scroll through social media and text messages while making a plan for the next day, cracking jokes that are a better fit for locker rooms than boardrooms.
or
"It is a little wild," Piasecki says to the room, "that we're just six guys in an office in Texas but we're shaping a market for these institutions that bring in millions and millions."
But the thing that utterly floored me -- though I guess it shouldn't have -- was this:
And later that night, he discovered some new information while researching his options online that made his decision much easier: Virginia, like many universities, will accept only up to 60 credit hours of previous coursework for any transfer student.
The point here is that agents do not even have to consider the academic impact on these guys. They don't have to worry about what happens to these guys' lives down the road. They just take their 8-15% (and more in some cases from what I've been told), and ideally set up a relationship with a player who ultimately lands in the NFL.
This is not Scott Boras or Jimmy Sexton we're talking about, mind you. These are guys who often have zero background or experience -- just hustlers who see a market waiting to be exploited.
I'm not suggesting the role of an agent isn't needed in today's college football. But I do think there are a lot of agents that are doing little other than collecting a check for poisoning the well.
OK, that's all for this week, but please be sure to click the subscribe button as I'm hopeful next week will be a fun recap of the Buc-ee's experience.
In the meantime, tune in tonight at 6 on ACCN. It's going to be -- memorable.