Reports Say Ward Has 10 Substantial NIL Offers, Including from UW
The University of Washington football team repeatedly got its hands on Cameron Ward in Saturday's Apple Cup, sacking the Washington State quarterback 5 times.
The next time the Huskies latch onto Ward, they might not let him go.
On Tuesday, just 72 hours after Kalen DeBoer's team emerged with a last-play 24-21 victory over Ward and the Cougars at Husky Stadium, intriguing yet unsubstantiated reports surfaced suggesting that 10 schools are dangling name, image and likeness deals worth at least $1 million in front of the WSU quarterback, said to be considering a graduate transfer.
Among them supposedly are Auburn, Oregon, Notre Dame, Texas A&M — and Washington.
Again, there is no way of verifying the offers, or even that Ward is considering passing up his final season in Pullman, because there are no current rules governing NIL and the signal-caller has made no public pronouncements on his football plans.
It has been thought all along that the Huskies, once Michael Penix Jr. was done, would bring in a veteran quarterback from the transfer portal to join in the competition to replace the left-hander.
Yet the 6-foot-2, 223-pound Ward hadn't been outwardly mentioned as a possibility to come in and take over the UW offense in 2024 when the Huskies become Big Ten members.
Unless something changes, those in the program who will compete for the job include current junior Dylan Morris, the Husky starter in 2020 and 2021, which was pre-Penix; 6-foot-6, 226-pound freshman Austin Mack, a 17-year-old who reclassified for this season instead of playing as a high school senior; and San Diego State transfer Will Haskell, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound sophomore who runs the scout team.
Similar to when Penix came to the UW, Ward is a battle-tested and well-decorated quarterback who spent his first two seasons at FCS Incarnate Word in San Antonio, earning Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2021. He threw for 4,648 yards and 47 touchdowns for a 10-3 team.
He earned All-Pac-12 honorable mention in 2022 after passing for 3,231 yards and 23 scores while leading the Cougars to the L.A. Bowl, where they lost to Fresno State 29-6 and finished 7-6.
This past season, Ward completed 324 of 486 passes for 3,732 yards and 25 touchdowns for a 5-7 WSU team that suffered through a six-game losing streak and didn't make the postseason.
A native of West Columbia, Texas, which is 50 miles south of Houston, the quarterback has fairly gaudy career college passing totals of 1,211 completions in 1,876 attempts for 13,871 yards and 119 TDs with 30 interceptions.
Ward twice went to head with Penix and the Huskies. A year ago, he completed 33 of 52 passes for 322 yards and 2 scores with 3 interceptions in a 51-33 loss to the UW in Pullman, getting sacked 6 times.
This past weekend, he was good on 32 of 48 passes for 317 yards and 3 scores in a game that was decided by Grady Gross' 42-yard field goal with no time showing at Husky Stadium.
The Huskies sacked Ward 11 times collectively in those outings. Who knows, they might provide him with much better pocket protection next year.
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