The legend of Cam Ward’s origin story has grown into an increasingly taller tale on his path from FCS All-American to Heisman frontrunner at the University of Miami. 

It was one of those satellite summer camps at Incarnate Word where everyone on the team’s recruiting board, even those not, was invited. Ward, a rising senior at Columbia High School and zero-star recruit, was on the side of the 50-yard line with the have-nots. But when UIW quarterbacks coach Mack Leftwich glanced over, he kept seeing missiles fired from a 6 '2, 235-pound Ward.

“In the four to five years I was at UIW doing camps there, it was by far the best camp performance that we had,” said Leftwich, now the offensive coordinator at Texas State.

UIW ended the camp with a crossfield comeback throw from the opposite hash, a drill to separate the men from the boys. The ball jumped out of Ward’s hand more than any of the future Power Four quarterbacks there.

After the session, Leftwich met with Cam and his father, Calvin, telling them UIW would start recruiting him. But he said he didn’t know if Ward would still be available when UIW was ready to offer. Surely, bigger schools would notice his athleticism at their camps.

“Cameron looks at me like, ‘What is he talking about? We’re not hearing from anyone,’” Calvin said.

Ward had already attended Texas A&M, Houston and Texas State camps that summer, leaving each without a conversation, much less an offer. He had all the tools but none of the tape. 

In Ward’s first three games at Miami, he threw for 1,035 yards and 11 touchdowns. In his entire junior season of high school, he threw for 1,070 yards and 7 touchdowns, piloting Columbia’s Wing-T offense. 

Then UIW head coach Eric Morris had recruited Patrick Mahomes, who had three offers coming out of high school, as Texas Tech’s offensive coordinator. But the knock on Mahomes was that no one thought he could make the backyard-style plays he’s doing in the NFL in college. The knock on Ward was that he didn’t throw the ball but nine times a game, and he also didn’t run the ball because the coaches didn’t want him to get hurt.  

“It was a hard take. It probably would’ve been hard for me if I was at Texas Tech at the time to take him,” Morris, now the North Texas head coach, said. “There wasn’t any video evidence of him doing some of the things he’s special at, and that’s extending plays and making some off-script stuff happen.”

Ward wouldn’t leave Columbia in search of an Air Raid offense. He enjoyed playing with his teammates from little league, and his mother, Patrice, was the school’s longtime girls’ basketball coach and teacher.

But Calvin did bring his son to Steve Van Meter, a retired high school football coach of 35 years, for quarterback training on the weekends. That first session, Van Meter caught two of Ward’s passes warming up before grabbing his catcher’s mitt to protect his left hand. 

“From that point on I said, ‘Cam, you bring receivers. I’m not catching your big ass anymore,’” Van Meter said. “‘My golf game is too important. I don’t want to break fingers catching your ball.’”

Ward was raw. He had poor footwork and opened his left shoulder too early. But he was what Van Meter calls a ‘one-timer,’ fixing mistakes the first time he told him.

These throwing sessions allowed Ward to let loose what he couldn’t show in the games. His favorite throw was to stand on the numbers and fire a 15-yard out to the opposite numbers, similar to the pass he wowed UIW with. Van Meter posted these throws on his Twitter account and texted contacts he’d built in the industry about this quarterback who just needed someone to allow him to show his potential.

“I’m thinking at the time, ‘I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I’ve had some good quarterbacks. I think I know a little bit about quarterbacks,” Van Meter said. “‘Am I stupid? Are people not seeing what I’m seeing with this kid?’”

But UIW was monitoring Ward throughout his senior season. Morris loved the fact Ward was a dual-sport athlete, the basketball program’s all-time leading scorer. And, frankly, a couple other guys had fallen through.

“I joke around that I was a bad enough recruiter to end up with Cam Ward because we missed on a couple other quarterbacks during that class,” Leftwich said.

One afternoon, after Ward’s senior season concluded, Van Meter was out to eat with his wife when Morris called him. Coach, he said, we’re sitting in the office discussing Cam Ward. What are your thoughts on him as a QB?

“I said, ‘Well, no offense. But if Cam was in my offense, you guys wouldn’t have a chance,’” Van Meter said.

Morris laughed. That’s exactly what they were thinking, he said. 

And that’s how the state’s biggest secret ended up at UIW instead of junior college.

The Cardinals were set at quarterback for the 2020 season with Jon Copeland, a two-time All-American who’d rewritten UIW’s record book. Ward entered the program as its third-string quarterback, a developmental prospect. Except he didn’t see it that way. He told his father he would beat out Copeland before arriving in San Antonio in August, to which Calvin responded that he needed to tap the brakes.

“Are you hearing me?” Cameron asked his father. “Do you believe me?” 

Ward, as the kids say, has that dog in him, and it refused to kennel up no matter how many coaches picked a four-star over him at the numerous camps he attended. This year, a video of him trash-talking Colorado star Sheduer Sanders during a summer workout for lobbing the ball went viral. For some, that was the first sign of what he’d accomplish at Miami. But for those who’ve lived through his story, it’s what brought him to Miami in the first place, knocking on the NFL’s door four years after being locked out of the FBS house.

“Back in that home visit we had with him, he would’ve told you he was going to play quarterback in the NFL,” Leftwich said.  

But first, he had to win the quarterback job at UIW during a canceled 2020 fall season due to COVID-19.

Ward stormed into his parents’ hotel room when he found out his freshman season was over before it began. But his parents allowed him to see the silver lining: a fall of practices would give him extra reps to transition to an Air Raid offense he’d never run before.

Morris agrees that the canceled season was the best thing to happen to Ward, who made vast improvements through the weeks of practice, gaining on Copeland until Morris decided to open up the competition during a couple of intrasquad scrimmages.

UIW scheduled an exhibition game against Arkansas State late that fall. A week before the game, Leftwich called Calvin and asked if he still planned to come. Oh boy, Calvin thought, what kind of trouble did Cam get into?

Just winning the starting quarterback job.

That game never happened (there weren’t enough offensive linemen due to COVID), but the decision it prompted had repercussions that ACC teams are feeling four years later.

Ward led UIW to a conference championship that shortened-spring season in 2021, winning the Jerry Rice Award, the FCS’s version of the Heisman, then followed it up in the fall by winning Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Year. 

He transferred to Washington State when Morris got the offensive coordinator job, a Texas kid following the only head coach who’d taken a chance on him to the Pacific Northwest. For as much potential as Morris saw in him that first summer camp, Ward only realized it because he knew it was there all along.

“He’s someone that when he has a ball in his hands and he’s competing, he believes in himself,” Morris said. “I think that’s the first step in being great.”

Ward threw for 3,232 yards, 23 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2022 - numbers even more impressive with the added context he did so behind two freshman offensive tackles and a walk-on guard. 

When Morris left for the North Texas head coach job in 2023, Ward could only transfer if he sat out a year. He’d aced every college test with Morris but now had to do so without the tutor.

“Now you’ve really got to go prove to people that you were the biggest reason why,” Calvin said. “It’s not a product of the system. It’s you.”

Ward threw for more yards and touchdowns on a better completion percentage, with fewer interceptions. 

That performance gave him an opportunity at the NFL. But Ward chose to do what he’s done his entire life - bet on himself. There was still money on the table, and he’s grabbing it at Miami this season. After two seasons at Washington State, he was told he’d be a third-to-fifth-round NFL Draft pick. After half a season at Miami, that’s vaulted to a top-ten selection overall. 

Ward is both a cautionary tale and a success story of the modern college football landscape. College recruiting starts earlier than ever, especially at the quarterback position, where teams want the eventual team leader to lead the recruiting class. But the Transfer Portal offers a ladder for those late bloomers who fall through the cracks, and those like Ward who know their worth but just need one school to give them a shot before they start climbing rung by rung. 

“As a society, we get caught up in whether you’re a three, four or five star,” Calvin said. “I think Cameron’s story really illustrates that regardless of where you start at, no one can define your final destination except for you.”