Miami’s Cam Ward threw for 404 yards and three touchdowns to become the 13th player in NCAA history to pass for at least 15,000 career yards, helping the eighth-ranked Hurricanes to a 50-15 victory over the University of South Florida on Saturday night.
Ward threw touchdown passes of 6 yards to Isaiah Horton, 5 yards to Xavier Restrepo and 76 yards to Sam Brown, the latter of which gave Miami (4-0) a decisive lead late in the second quarter. Damien Martinez scored three touchdowns, including two 1-yard touchdowns to cap off a long drive that extended the lead to 36-15 in the third quarter.
Receiver Sean Atkins had 11 catches for 125 yards and also threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to USF (2-2) quarterback Byram Brown.
The Bulls took a 15-14 lead with 2:36 left in the first half on field goals of 58 and 51 yards by Nico Gramatica and 45 yards by John Cannon, giving the crowd of 58,616 hopes of a possible upset.
Ward entered the night 89 yards away from reaching 15,000 career yards, but got there with a 22-yard pass to Horton late in the first quarter, before throwing a 6-yard touchdown to Horton moments later, capping an eight-play, 90-yard drive that gave the Hurricanes a 14-9 lead.
The only active college quarterback with more than 15,000 passing yards is Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, who had 15,779 passing yards in 53 games with three schools before Saturday. Ward began his career at FCS Incarnate Word and threw for 6,908 yards in two seasons, reaching the milestone in his 48th game.
The 6-foot-2, 223-pound quarterback spent the past two years at Washington State, where he threw for 6,968 passing yards. He threw for 1,439 yards in his first four games at Miami, becoming the first Miami player to throw for 300 or more yards in four consecutive games and improving his career passing total to 15,315 yards.
Ward had one interception Saturday night, on a tip-off pass from Restrepo in the first quarter, but finished 24-of-34 passing. Miami’s scoring came on a 90-yard touchdown run by Jordan Lyle in the final seconds of the game.
USF, in its second year under head coach Alex Goresh, had a tough time against a top-10 opponent for the second time in its past three games. The Bulls held a close game against No. 4 Alabama and caught Miami’s attention, but collapsed in the fourth quarter and fell, 42-16.
But against the Crimson Tide, they were down 14-13 going into the fourth quarter, but on Saturday night they trailed by 22-15 when Cannon missed a 31-yard field goal just before halftime to cut the lead to four points.
Ward threw five touchdown passes and Miami racked up a school-record 750 yards of total offense in a 62-0 win over Ball State last week. His three touchdown passes against USF brought his season total to 14.
summary
Miami: The Hurricanes overcame their first real tests with big wins over Florida (41-17), Florida A&M (56-9) and Ball State (62-0) in their season openers, and now they turn their attention to the start of Atlantic Coast Conference play.
USF: The Bulls begin their American Athletic Conference schedule next week and it’s clear that coach Goresh is trending in the right direction after taking over a team that went 1-11 two years ago. The former Tennessee offensive coordinator has led the team to a 7-6 record after six wins in 2023.
What the polls mean
Miami has 209 points through four games and is expected to defend its top-10 status.
Next
Miami will host Virginia Tech in their ACC opener next Friday.
USF plays its AAC opener at Tulane next Saturday.
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