While Tennessee has Will Levis, who started 12 games last season, it would be anything but surprising if Ward is the starter in Week 1 of the 2025 campaign. It's not as if Levis was excellent while going 2-10 with 13 touchdown passes to 12 interceptions in those 12 starts, and the Miami product brings a much higher ceiling.

Ward only stayed in the 2024 draft cycle for 13 days before pulling out to transfer to Miami, a decision that led to the Hurricanes' first 10-win season since 2017 and launched Ward from fringe Day 2 prospect to the first player off the board Thursday night.

The name Cam Ward has very different meanings in North Carolina's Research Triangle and the rest of the country. In Raleigh, N.C., he is forever the nerve center of the Carolina Hurricanes' 2006 Stanley Cup team—the rookie who backstopped his squad to the promised land.