GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Cam Ward was not impressed.

We're not talking about the Florida Gators, although Miami's quarterback had every reason to walk out of The Swamp Saturday underwhelmed with what he saw across the line of scrimmage after the Hurricanes' 41-17 beat down. But Ward knew enough not to say as much about an opponent.

What had Ward confused was all the talk about the Gators' fans, and how they might rattle the quarterback in his first start for Miami. In fact, Ward was so dismissive of the atmosphere inside the stadium he ranked it somewhere between the heavyweights from the old Pac-12 and a church service.

"I played at USC, it was louder than this," said Ward, who transferred to Miami from Washington State. He then added Washington and Oregon to that list before one more zinger.

"Practice is way louder than this."

But why stop at the fans. Ward was on a roll. Why not take aim at the SEC.

"The Pac-12, that's where I believe real football is played," Ward added about a conference that now includes two teams, Oregon State and Ward's former school.

Ward then gave some advice to Florida fans, who surely will take it in stride.

"Advice to the fans, if you're going to be loud, you have to be loud when we're huddling," Ward said. "You can't just be loud when we break the huddle. That's no point. We communicated already."

None of those wearing orange and blue among 90,000-plus fans in attendance Saturday (which, by the way, is about 41,000 more than the Hurricanes averaged last season) will admit this, but they certainly cannot say the same about Ward that Ward said about their lackluster effort to support the home team.

Ward threw for 385 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He completed 25-of-34 passes. And when Miami needed Ward to improvise early in the game, he ran twice for 36 yards.

Ward wasn't perfect, but he was close enough for a beleaguered Miami fan base. The fifth-year senior picked apart a Gators defense that did not do much to take heat off their coach, Billy Napier.

"He's not bad," Miami coach Mario Cristobal said sarcastically about Ward before getting serious.

"Special, special guy. He's just scratching the surface."

Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

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