Cameron Ward might be the next great Miami quarterback - ESPN

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Cameron Ward admits he is a natural trash-talker. He's a quarterback. A team leader. He says getting his teammates fired up is his job. This is especially true now that he is at Miami, where Ward transferred in January to win a championship and improve himself along the way. In his view, there's no more time to waste. Every rep matters.

During one recent practice, Ward wanted to set the tone early and saw the perfect opportunity on the first play of the team period — offensive starters lined up against the defensive starters. Ward handed the ball off to the running back. He then noticed 6-foot-3, 305-pound defensive tackle C.J. Clark with his back turned, pushing the pile.

Instead of standing behind the line until the play ended, Ward ran up to the pile and bumped Clark. Hard. Clark turned around to see who pushed him. There stood his 6-foot-2, 223-pound quarterback with a big ol' trash-talking grin on his face.

«Yeah, I'm going to make you practice today!» Ward shouted to him.

«I talk the most out of everybody just because I have to,» Ward explained. «I feel like it sets the tone.»

Miami coach Mario Cristobal would know how that looks and sounds. He arrived at Miami in 1988 as a player amid the greatest era in program history, when the Hurricanes had the trash-talking down cold — then went out and backed it up, winning three of their five national championships from 1987 to 1991. That talk served its purpose on the practice field, as players raised the competition level among themselves before game day.

Now entering Year 3 as Hurricanes head coach, Cristobal believes he has a game-changer at quarterback who can lift the program to heights unseen in decades. The tone Ward sets has lifted the