GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Cam Ward was in a giving mood after the Miami Hurricanes opened their season Saturday by stomping the rival Florida Gators in The Swamp.

He offered some advice for the 90,000 fans who were screaming at the top of their lungs at him and his teammates.

“If you’re gonna be loud, be loud when we’re huddling,” Miami’s star quarterback said. “You can’t just be loud when we break the huddle. There’s no point. We heard the play and communicated already.”

The Gators didn’t lose, though, because their home crowd let them down. The 19th-ranked Hurricanes did it the old-fashioned way — by obliterating Florida on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

Done broke that gator jaw 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/v4pQXB3nTO

— Hurricane t2y (@T2yHurricane) September 1, 2024

Ward looked bored at times standing behind a wall of offensive linemen with enough time to sign NIL deals, sip tea and pick apart Florida’s secondary. He made one mistake early — an errant throw behind his receiver — and finished with 385 passing yards and three touchdowns while completing 26-of-35 pass attempts. He sidestepped Florida’s secondary with ease the two times he took off for long runs and was sacked only once.

Ward’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Jacolby George in the back of the end zone to make it 38-10 with six minutes left in the third quarter was his masterpiece.

“Yeah, he’s not bad,” Cristobal said of the Washington State transfer. “He’s just scratching the surface.”

The Hurricanes might be, too.

They were nearly perfect in the much-anticipated opener. Sure, Ward’s pick wasn’t ideal. And two Miami defensive players took a bad angle on a 71-yard touchdown run by Florida’s Montrell Johnson. Oh, Andy Borregales missed a field goal. Other than that? Not much to complain about.

The Canes held Florida to 261 yards of offense and outgained the Gators by 268 yards. And that was with Rueben Bain, their best defensive player, going down with a soft-tissue injury on the first play of the game. Starting cornerback Damari Brown was also sidelined early with a similar injury.

Don’t worry, Canes fans, Cristobal said he expects both players back in a week or two. The way the Hurricanes looked on Saturday, Bain and Brown could take the next month off. Florida A&M, Ball State and South Florida are up next on the schedule.

Miami should be 4-0 when it opens ACC play at home on Sept. 27 against Virginia Tech — a team that lost to Vanderbilt on Saturday. You probably have to glance ahead to the trip to Louisville on Oct. 19 to find a game the Hurricanes might not be favored to win.

“We’re playing Miami football now. We’re starting to look like Miami in a lot of different respects,” Cristobal said.  “No one ever really likes to talk about the starting point. These guys have been through a lot and made the decision that they’d had enough. They proved it by the way they played the game.”

At ACC media days in July, Miami was picked to finish third in the league behind defending conference champion Florida State and the Clemson Tigers. Earlier on Saturday, Dabo Swinney’s team got run off the field in the second half by Georgia in a humbling 34-3 loss in Atlanta. Florida State needs to beat Boston College on Monday to avoid an 0-2 start.

With Ward at the helm, the Hurricanes are oozing confidence.

“He’s ridiculous. He’s amazing,” said Xavier Restrepo, who led Miami with seven catches for 112 yards and one touchdown. “He has the same love that we all have for the game. So it’s easy, you know, to do something for someone that loves football as much as you do.”

Ward, meanwhile, has no issue giving Gators and SEC fans a parting gift to chew on.

“I played at USC. USC wasn’t packed, but it was louder than this,” Ward said. “I played at Oregon. It was louder than this. Washington was one of the loudest environments I’ve played in. The Pac-12 is misspoken for. The Pac-12 is where I feel real football is played.”

(Photo of Cam Ward: James Gilbert / Getty Images)

Following the Miami Dolphins cutdown to the semi-final 53-man roster this past week, I asked:

Which player(s), if any, were you disappointed to see cut by the Dolphins today and why? Which player(s), if any, were you disappointed to see NOT cut by the Dolphins today and why?

Below are some of your answers and thoughts on the question of the day-

sdphinsfan is concerned that “nothing has changed.” I, too, am worried about the OL and hoping that we are all wrong somehow, but I know we probably are not.

Everybody’s hurt and the starting IOL is comprised of the same depth players that were playing at the end of last season. So nothing has changed since this team last took the field in a real game. What’s that saying about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?

Lefty5150 is probably sad again now that McMorris has also been cut from the practice squad.

Glad they kept McMorris sad they had to cut Brooks

heatforlife wants the front office to consider a player’s past injury history more before signing a guy.

ez e and brooks looked good until injuries,cracaft alwasy looks good until he gets hurt.phillips and chubb were balling until injuries.waddles injured. obj cant play w/o getting hurt.wynn was always in ne .uh mr grier when u acquire players can u ck their injury history a little closer please

SlayerNation1 pointed out that the roster would only take its closer to final form towards the end of the week.

This roster is the rough draft that needed to be handed in to the teacher yesterday at 4:00

It will change before kickoff. We shall know of they do get it right, and very quickly, as in after 4 days of kickoff.

We’ll know a lot in 4 days. Has McD’s coaching evolved to have the team prepared for a possible shootout vs JAX, to not look ahead to a short week with BUF already breathing down their necks? Weaver’s Defense? Can they afford any injury already?

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No pressure, just imperative to be 2-0 (no significant injuries) in 4 days when you look at the last 6 weeks of the schedule.

cyberflea is miffed at decisions made.

Easy what Grier got wrong….not addressing the IOL.The OL is worse than it was last year and will be a concern throughout the season.

Dolfanjoe is another concerned with some of the injuries.

The problem here is that we do not know the extensiveness of the injuries for many players. I was very bummed seeing Brooks put out on the waiver wire ! If he is near health with just a concussion i could see another team taking a chance on him. But then again we know nothing about if it is just a concussion or he is dealing with something else. Some tough cuts and maybe more to come with pickups in the next few days. Hoping we get a talented practice squad. We need the depth!

Alpha6 wanted to see Brooks make it and Tindall sent on down the road.

Which player(s), if any, were you disappointed to see cut by the Dolphins today and why?

BROOKS/RB – played 9 games for the Dolphins in 2023, totaling 19 carries for 106 yards (5.6 avg.) only ‘cause he’s a BYU product & ‘cause he looked like a bruising back.

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Which player(s), if any, were you disappointed to see NOT cut by the Dolphins today and why?

TINDALL/LB – ‘cause this dude was suppose to be something great.

daytonadolfan is for the most part happy with how things went down.

I’m good with the cuts, Needham was a surprise but i guess he’s getting a little long in the tooth so next man up ! Not happy with so many skill players on the pup list. Feels like we are starting out short handed and who get’s cut to bring them back in?

It seems as if those of us here are inline with the majority of the Dolphins fans base. We are worried about the offensive line and the lack of depth in that unit. Thus far we have not seen the front office address it after the cuts so I guess we will see and they will live with the concequeses of decisions made or not made. Thank you again to each of you that took the time to answer our question of the day.

Rapper Travis Scott is no longer facing charges after police said he drunkenly yelled at people on a yacht in Miami Beach back in June.

The last remaining charge against the artist, a count of trespassing after warning, was dropped Friday, Miami-Dade County records showed.

Prosecutors dropped a disorderly intoxication charge against Scott, 33, in early August. NBC6 reached out to Scott’s publicist for comment at that time, but did not hear back.

Miami Beach Police said they responded to the city’s marina on June 20 and found Scott standing on the dock yelling at people on the ship. Officers told him to sit down, but he kept standing back up and yelling. They could smell alcohol on his breath, police said. The man who called police did not want to press charges, so Scott was allowed to leave.

After being told to leave and coming back to the marina, police said they arrested the rapper.

Bodycam was later released that showed Scott’s conversation with officers.

“I rented this boat, the owners came on this boat. They kicked down my door at 12 o’clock. I don’t know what’s going on, ask him,” Scott tells the officers, adding, “There was no fighting involved.”

At one point, Scott approaches an officer and gets into an argument. He’s then put in handcuffs, with officers telling him that he’s causing a disturbance.

Scott was released from Miami-Dade County Jail after posting a $650 bond. The rapper later poked fun at the arrest after bonding out, posting “Lol” on X and adding sunglasses and earbuds to his mugshot on his Instagram story.

His attorney, Bradford Cohen, said in a statement at the time that Scott was “detained due to a misunderstanding.”

“There was absolutely no physical altercation involved, and we thank the authorities for working with us towards a swift and amicable resolution,” Cohen said.