I was idly looking at mock drafts. Naturally, Cam Ward is listed as being from UM. Back in the olden times there used to be some crowing on all sides about how many players a team drafted. As well as how many went first round, etc.
In this age of “rent a player” does this really make sense any longer? Sure, Cam went to UM for a year. If he ended up in the college football hall of fame what jersey would he wear? He spent more time at Washington State. For all I know they taught him everything and Cam just used that knowledge during his year at UM (with arguably better talent around him). I don’t know that I 100% feel Cam “belongs” to UM in terms of UM recruited and made the player into a NFL pick. This sentiment would obtain for any player who had a cup of coffee at UM (or any other university).
Purely personally I’d require that 3/4 (maybe 2/3) of a career has to be with UM to count as a true UM draft pick. It may be that this whole game of tallying up a team’s drafted players should be a thing of the past.
Incarnate Word would like a word.
1 Like
I think Maury povich does a whole show about this.
It seems the formula used for qualifying athletes is where they achieved their foremost fame. There is no doubt the Ward reached his apogee as a collegiate athlete at UM. In our case, we’ll always regard him as a Hurricane, and he’ll be so remembered in perpetuity by most sports fans. I think those at WAZU and Incarnate Word will also continue holding him in high regard as being the footstep schools leading to his consensus national stardom.
Cam might be called and “edge case” due to his skill set and fame. I am also interested in opinions in a general sense. Sure, a stellar year associates a player with a uniform. I don’t know, let’s say that Ajay Allen goes off this year at FIU and makes an NFL team. Would one say, “There’s a Cane in the NFL!” It’s just a weird situation these days. Like a hall of fame baseball player who split his career evenly among three teams. Which cap goes on the plaque? This never used to be the case in college football. I am very used to being able to see a UM player in the pros and go, 100% Cane. (Not to say that transfers never happened before NIL, they of course did and some famous Canes were transfers.)