Cam Ward Sitting Out the Second Half of the Pop-Tarts Bowl Is the Ultimate Nothingburger

Moreover, in the second half, Ward was basically coaching his backup, Emory Williams. 

Not that it would matter to those who insist that Ward's decision will impact how NFL teams will think of him. 

Or, perhaps that's wishful thinking. 

With NIL and the transfer portal, college players have more control of their destinies than ever before. And that's an idea whose time should have come decades ago. Unfortunately, there are some who believe that college players should be eternally grateful to those who made even more money off the backs of those players than the players ever have. So, when a player does take a step forward for his own benefit, the backlash can and will be severe. 

Cam Ward didn't have to play that game at all. Yes, he set the NCAA Division I record for career touchdown passes with 156, but that was his first of three touchdown passes in the game. And the plan was always to have Ward sit out the second half. It was not a split-second move. Ward did not "quit on his team," or any other cliche one wants to throw out there. 

Ward did not explain the decision post-game, and head coach Mario Cristobal kept his feeling about it under wraps. 

"All meetings with players, and decisions like that, we made them in private, we keep them in private," Cristobal said. "So, I'll prefer not to answer any questions as it relates to that. But I know he played his best while he was in there."

It would probably be a good idea for Ward, who was not part of the post-game pressers, to explain it all before the scouting combine in late February. Not because NFL teams will grill him over that; NFL teams are more than used to this. But there will be a lot of reporters and analysts who want to put the toothpaste back in the tube when it comes to the ability of college players to decide their own futures. That's where the grilling will come from. 

When some NFL team selects Cam Ward with one of the first picks in the 2025 draft, this game will be forgotten, as were the opt-outs from the 2024 draft who have mostly gone on to positive NFL experiences. Reading those names from 2024, how many of the opt-outs do you actually remember? Once they became NFL players, and even before that, their bowl game decisions had faded into the ether. 

The only reason Cam Ward's hasn't is because he now represents a Really Big Problem to those who would prefer that college players give their all whether it makes sense or not. You may not like that bowl games have effectively become preseason games in an NFL sense, but they have, and that's the reality of things. 

Cam Ward didn't do anything wrong. He didn't let his team down. He entered into an agreement with an organization, he met all of his obligations, and now, he has the right to prepare for the next step in his professional development. 

Maybe he shouldn't have played in the Pop-Tarts Bowl at all. Would the reaction have been any less dramatic if he had simply moved on and let Emory Williams play the entire game? 

Something to think about the next time it happens. Because it will happen again in this bowl season. And the next, and the next, and the next. Perhaps we should re-calibrate our expectations for the modern era of college football, as opposed to a bygone time that — thankfully — no longer exists.