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Coug1990

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Dec 22, 2002
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Very nice article on Cam Ward. I am looking forward to watching him play. I do think WSU upgraded the QB position.

Lane Kiffin was on a flight on a Friday when he found out about Cameron Ward. Out of curiosity, the Ole Miss head coach looked up the tape of the FCS transfer quarterback.

Kiffin would later tell Ward’s parents he only needed to see 10 plays before he turned to an assistant and asked, “Why haven’t I heard about this kid? Is something wrong with him?”

Kiffin wanted to get him on campus immediately. Ward and his parents, Calvin and Patrice, arrived for their official visit on Saturday afternoon. The next morning, while making his pitch for why Ward needed to join the Rebels, Kiffin delivered a line Calvin won’t soon forget.

“He said, ‘Cameron, you’re gonna be a first-round draft pick,’” Ward said.

 
Very nice article on Cam Ward. I am looking forward to watching him play. I do think WSU upgraded the QB position.

Lane Kiffin was on a flight on a Friday when he found out about Cameron Ward. Out of curiosity, the Ole Miss head coach looked up the tape of the FCS transfer quarterback.
And that’s where it cut me off
Kiffin would later tell Ward’s parents he only needed to see 10 plays before he turned to an assistant and asked, “Why haven’t I heard about this kid? Is something wrong with him?”

Kiffin wanted to get him on campus immediately. Ward and his parents, Calvin and Patrice, arrived for their official visit on Saturday afternoon. The next morning, while making his pitch for why Ward needed to join the Rebels, Kiffin delivered a line Calvin won’t soon forget.

“He said, ‘Cameron, you’re gonna be a first-round draft pick,’” Ward said.

 
Couldn't get in to read the article but in doing a little searching online I discovered that Ward was offered by Arizona back on December 30...a couple of weeks before DeLaura bailed. Looks like DeLaura was Arizona's second choice.
 
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I hate to go all sorry grapes on a guy, but it's pretty easy to imagine that Cam Ward might be less frustrating to watch as a fan than de Laura was. We had too many games where the offense was stagnant for long periods.

Oregon outscored us 24-3 at one point.

We went over 31 minutes of game time without a score against BYU.

We went over a full quarter against Stanford as they scored 15 points unanswered to take the lead. Kudos to JDL and the team for the game winning drive though.

We scored a measly 6 points in the first 36 minutes of the OSU game. Again, kudos to JDL and the team for making up for it in the last 24 minutes.

USC had a 38-0 run on us.

Utah outscored us 17-0 to finish the game.

Utah State outscored us 15-0 to finish the game.

Too many instances of that.
 
You are right that there were long periods of offensive stagnation. However, your USC and Utah examples were without JDL who was injured.
 
I hate to go all sorry grapes on a guy, but it's pretty easy to imagine that Cam Ward might be less frustrating to watch as a fan than de Laura was. We had too many games where the offense was stagnant for long periods.

Oregon outscored us 24-3 at one point.

We went over 31 minutes of game time without a score against BYU.

We went over a full quarter against Stanford as they scored 15 points unanswered to take the lead. Kudos to JDL and the team for the game winning drive though.

We scored a measly 6 points in the first 36 minutes of the OSU game. Again, kudos to JDL and the team for making up for it in the last 24 minutes.

USC had a 38-0 run on us.

Utah outscored us 17-0 to finish the game.

Utah State outscored us 15-0 to finish the game.

Too many instances of that.
He lead the conference in TD passes.

Freshman POY.

The kid has talent.

And he has flaws, which we've dissected ad nauseum on this board. I hardly think its necessary to go back to that well now that he's gone. You said "I hate to..." then don't. He's a kid and all he wants to do is play the best he can. I'd maybe understand if we were left completely screwed, but we're not - we actually have two great looking kids coming in.

Time to move on.
 
He lead the conference in TD passes.

Freshman POY.

The kid has talent.

And he has flaws, which we've dissected ad nauseum on this board. I hardly think its necessary to go back to that well now that he's gone. You said "I hate to..." then don't. He's a kid and all he wants to do is play the best he can. I'd maybe understand if we were left completely screwed, but we're not - we actually have two great looking kids coming in.

Time to move on.

I would have been fine with JDL staying at WSU and continuing to improve. Outside of the bowl game debacle, which wasn't all on JDL, he was pretty good in the second half of the season. We still got boatraced by more talented teams later in the season, but who didn't?

Still, I'm hoping that Ward shows us consistency that JDL wasn't able to offer. As mentioned above, Ward passed up on Arizona and JDL bailed right about the time that we officially offered Ward. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see what was going on in the room when this was going on.

Only time will tell if we got the better end of the deal.
 
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I would have been fine with JDL staying at WSU and continuing to improve. Outside of the bowl game debacle, which wasn't all on JDL, he was pretty good in the second half of the season. We still got boatraced by more talented teams later in the season, but who didn't?

Still, I'm hoping that Ward shows us consistency that JDL wasn't able to offer. As mentioned above, Ward passed up on Arizona and JDL bailed right about the time that we officially offered Ward. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see what was going on in the room when this was going on.

Only time will tell if we got the better end of the deal.
I am expecting a Ward to be about as constant as JDL in season one. Ward seems to have everything you want in a QB outside of experience. He played 16 games in 10 months and did exceptionally well at the FCS level. Before that two years in high school running the wing t. Thinking we will see flashes of excellence mixed in with bone head plays, but hope he proves me wrong.
 
I would have been fine with JDL staying at WSU and continuing to improve. Outside of the bowl game debacle, which wasn't all on JDL, he was pretty good in the second half of the season. We still got boatraced by more talented teams later in the season, but who didn't?

Still, I'm hoping that Ward shows us consistency that JDL wasn't able to offer. As mentioned above, Ward passed up on Arizona and JDL bailed right about the time that we officially offered Ward. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see what was going on in the room when this was going on.

Only time will tell if we got the better end of the deal.

I hope, expect, pretty sure, etc that Cam Ward, is, will be the better deal, and will probably be awesome next season, because of not only what he did last season, but real credible experts are projecting him as a NFL draft pick, and top 22 Heisman candidate, and part of reason why WSU predicted by experts to finish 2nd, 3rd, in Pac 12 North, is because of Ward, and also because of the system, scheme, of Morris and the still awesome, still 7 deep, WSU WR Corp.

Because of all that Ward will probably do better then JDL did, and light it up.

Yeah there a small chance that Cam Ward will struggle, that's true no matter how good their ON PAPER, potential, past production, no matter how likely they are to be awesome, no matter how unlikely they are too struggle, not do as well, etc. That's why still play the game.

But it's still likely Ward does awesome, and unlikely that Ward struggles, struggles a lot, doesn't do as well, better then JDL, etc.
 
I would have been fine with JDL staying at WSU and continuing to improve. Outside of the bowl game debacle, which wasn't all on JDL, he was pretty good in the second half of the season. We still got boatraced by more talented teams later in the season, but who didn't?

Still, I'm hoping that Ward shows us consistency that JDL wasn't able to offer. As mentioned above, Ward passed up on Arizona and JDL bailed right about the time that we officially offered Ward. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see what was going on in the room when this was going on.

Only time will tell if we got the better end of the deal.
Who is JDL? I remember that name from a past life.
 
I am expecting a Ward to be about as constant as JDL in season one. Ward seems to have everything you want in a QB outside of experience. He played 16 games in 10 months and did exceptionally well at the FCS level. Before that two years in high school running the wing t. Thinking we will see flashes of excellence mixed in with bone head plays, but hope he proves me wrong.
Experience-wise, it seems like they're in similar places. Ward has 19 games behind him, JDL 16 (3 limited by injury?). Ward had a lot more attempts this season than JDL did, with a slightly higher completion % (65.1 to 64.3). Ward threw TDs at a little higher rate, INTs at a little lower rate. JDL took fewer sacks and gained better yardage on the ground.

Looking at game-by-game performance, Ward looks a bit more consistent, but did have a poor late-season game against Nichols and a rough mid-season game where he took 10 sacks and threw 3 picks in a loss to a McNeese team that finished 4-7. He also took 6 sacks against SF Austin in the first round of the playoffs. Both of those look a bit like a QB holding on too long trying to make something happen (especially McNeese - they were down 21-0) but when you get to 10 sacks, something is wrong on the OL too. JDL never took more than 3 sacks in a game.

Ward has a much quicker throwing motion. SOmetimes JDL has a long windup, Ward gets it out pretty fast. On the downside, he's got a low release point and a sidearm motion. That seems to have improved from his freshman to sophomore season, and if he's got open throwing lanes it doesn't matter. Seems to have good velocity and placement on most of his throws, and seems to see the field pretty well.

What I really noticed in some of Ward's highlights was the offensive play design. Especially in some of the play fakes and route trees, combined with Ward's quick delivery they create a lot of opportunities for short routes to be big gains. I think our inside receivers in particular could be looking at big numbers, as long as Ward can make the transition from FCS to FBS.
 
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