Cam Ward and Kieron Drones are cousins ​​and training partners. And now they are rivals.

Every week, Darrell Colbert Jr. joins a group FaceTime call with quarterbacks that he coaches to go over their performances, the good and the bad. Their relentless competition during their offseason sessions carries over into phone calls, as they compare stats, throws and even interceptions.

But this week no call came.

No. Cam Ward and Kieron Drone are set to square off against each other Friday night as No. 7 Miami meets Virginia Tech (7:30 ET, ESPN/ESPN App) in a key ACC game. They have nothing to say until the clock runs out.

How they got here speaks to the unpredictability that goes with life as a quarterback. Here we have two Texas guys, cousins ​​on their mother’s side, who were rated very differently as prospects in high school: Ward was barely recruited, Drones a four-star prospect.

Yet they both ended up where they were supposed to be, thanks to the transfer portal: Miami’s Ward, one of the early season Heisman contenders, and Virginia Tech’s drones, where he finally feels like he’s at home.

If you had told Colbert when he started working with Ward and Drone that one day he would be flying to Miami to watch them play against each other, he would have laughed.

“It was never supposed to happen,” Colbert said.

Ward and Drone grew up less than an hour apart from each other outside of Houston but had no idea they were related until high school. Even then, their first exposure came as quarterbacks looking for the right personal coach to improve their skills.

When their fathers saw them working with retired Texas high school coaching legend Steve Van Meter, they started talking. Calvin Ward told Kevin Drones that Cam West was playing at Columbia High. Kevin, a longtime assistant high school coach in the state, said his wife lives in a nearby town called Angleton. Calvin Ward said his wife is also from Angleton.

They each called home. Sure enough, their wives were second cousins ​​and they grew up together. But as they grow older, move to different cities and get busy with their respective families, they lose touch. Cam and Kieron allow them to reconnect and the family connection deepens the relationship between the quarterbacks.

After Van Meter returned to full-time high school coaching, Drones and Ward needed another quarterback coach to help them. Drone connected with Colbert his junior year of high school in 2019 thanks to his coaching staff. Colbert, who is 28, played for Drone’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach during his high school career, so he knew the ins and outs of what he wanted Drone to do.

After a year at FCS incarnate Ward, Ward also began working with Colbert in 2021.

“We definitely got closer as we started training together,” Kieron Drones said. “It gets really competitive. Really talking trash and picking each other’s brains about how to get better. We’re all trying to get to that end goal, which is the NFL. Hopefully, we’re in the same draft together.”

In fact, Ward graduated high school in 2020, a year before Dron. Stuck in the wing-T offense, Ward had so few opportunities to throw that recruits didn’t pay much attention to him. The truth is, Ward didn’t realize how good Cam could be until he started working with Van Meter. Ward had plans to play basketball in college. But during their initial training together, Van Meter pulled Calvin Ward aside.

“Look at this,” Van Meter told Kelvin Ward.

Van Meter got Cam to the right hashmark, and he took the receiver to the left hashmark and ran 15-yards out. Cam hit him perfectly.

“So he told Cameron, ‘Look, you can probably go across the country and find a 6-foot-2 shooting guard in basketball, but you’re probably one of the best 6-2 quarterbacks I’ve ever coached,’ and he’s been coaching high schools for 30-some years. did,” Calvin Ward said. “So from then on, his mindset changed that even though he wasn’t in a system in high school that could showcase his talent, there might be a path.”

Although Calvin took Cam across the country to camp, he only received a scholarship offer to Incarnate Word. So he took it.

Meanwhile in Pearland, Texas, Drones was also an overlooked high school prospect early in his career. He also dreamed of playing basketball in college. But as a junior in 2019, he led Shadow Creek High to a state championship — with his father on the coaching staff. Soon the offers started pouring in.

Initially, the Drones favored going to Auburn. But then COVID-19 halted his senior year recruitment and he couldn’t go on an official visit.

Drones last Power 5 offer goes to Texas State in 2021 at Baylor. But after two years there, Drones was still a backup and decided he wanted to start over. He entered the transfer portal. Virginia Tech was the first school to visit him in Waco.

“He was looking for someone who was willing to give him a chance and be honest about giving him a chance,” Kevin Drones said. “We felt that right away with Virginia Tech. We just want a chance, a real chance, not just lip service or you already have a guy you’re committed to or whatever. Just, be truthful and honest.”

Drone came to Blacksburg in 2023 and didn’t win the starting job right away. He became the starter after Grant Wells was injured early in the season. But once drones got their chance, there was no looking back. Drones started 11 games last year, capped with a Military Bowl record 176 yards rushing in a 41-20 win over Tulane, why many considered him one of the best returning dual-threat quarterbacks in the country.

Ward, meanwhile, finally got the chance to get the 5 he always wanted. But it wasn’t Miami. Not yet, anyway.

In two years at UIW, he threw for 6,908 yards and led the school to a conference title in 2021. He transferred to Washington State in 2022 and also threw for over 6,000 yards in two years there. When Ward opted to enter the transfer portal after the 2023 season, Drones knew he would have a good chance to play alongside his cousin this season.

It took a while before anyone was sure. Ward was unsure about returning to college. So unsure, in fact, that he entered his name for the NFL draft. His parents moved him to an apartment in Jacksonville, Florida, in January so he could begin working with a coach there to prepare for the draft.

But Calvin knew something. Before declaring for the draft, Cam said how much he loved playing college football and how much he had left to prove. “I think I’m a first-round draft pick,” Cam told his dad.

The NFL Draft Advisory Board rates him as a mid- to late-round pick. Calvin reminded Cam of their conversation as the deadline to pull his name from the draft approached. Miami kept in touch with Cam, hoping he would change his mind.

“He said, ‘What would you do if you were me?'” Calvin recalled. “I said, ‘It’s your decision.’ He said, ‘I want to go to Miami.’ If you could see his face, it was like Christmas lights.”

Calvin said that happened two days before the draft deadline. He and his wife, Patrice, helped Cam pack the apartment he rented. Cam is registered for a grad program at Miami Online. Then they were off, Cam driving his car down Interstate 95 and his parents driving a rented SUV with Cam’s 135-pound Rottweiler, Uno, making the trip alongside them.

With Ward joining the Hurricanes, pre-season expectations rose. But they also flew for the Hawkeyes, who returned Drones, their leading rusher, top four receivers and nearly everyone on the offensive line. When the ACC schedule was finally released in January, Ward and Drone saw a dream matchup: Virginia Tech at Miami, Sept. 27.

“I circled this game,” Drone said.

Colbert offered some advice, since Ward and another quarterback they work with, Colorado’s Shadeur Sanders, played against each other last year.

“I told Kieron, ‘Just know that Cam won’t talk to you all week; don’t expect him to say hi before the game,'” Colbert said with a laugh.

But Colbert added that the looming game fueled their competition during offseason workouts. Perhaps even more so for Ward, who wasn’t shy about talking a little trash.

“Let’s say we’re doing a drill and Kieron throws the ball a little bit higher or a little bit back,” Colbert said. “Cam would say, ‘Oh, that’s a pick against my guys.’ A lot of times it’s the short shot: ‘It’s a turnover on downs, now I’m going to score.’ Cam always starts it.”

Cam Ward credits workouts with Colbert and training with Sanders and Drones, for helping him get better.

“He’s one of the best quarterback coaches in the game,” Cam Ward said. “With me, Shedeur and Kieron, Darrell sets us up. He lets us have our own little style of how we play our game. He gets us equipped on the little things, and that’s what I feel is good.”

Ward is off to a hot start this season, ranking No. 2 in the nation in passing yards (1,439) and leading undefeated Miami to 209 total points — the most the Hurricanes have scored through the first four games of any season.

Virginia Tech is off to a slow start at 2-2 as the drone and offense try to find their footing. Kevin Drones noticed that Kieron was putting too much pressure on himself early in the season and told him to play loose and have fun. So far, Dron has totaled 974 yards of offense, with six touchdowns and three interceptions.

But as Ward said after last week’s win over USF, what’s happened so far is irrelevant. ACC play begins with a familiar face across the sidelines, a highly anticipated matchup between Ward and the Drone family. Unfortunately for Kevin Drones, he can’t attend because he has a high school game to coach that night.

But his wife Olinka will remain. So will Patrice and Calvin. The two cousins ​​will see each other before the game before sitting in their respective teams’ sections. Colbert can’t take sides. Rather, “Hopefully those guys can go out there and play one of those legendary games, so every time I turn on social media for the rest of the weekend, all I see is Kieron Drones and Cam Ward.”

Ward was, predictably, fairly tight-lipped when asked about his chances of opening ACC play against the Drones. “I’m ready to play the game,” Ward said.

Kiran on the other hand?

“Cam’s going to watch when we play Miami,” he said. “(I’ll) just show him who’s the real No. 1.”