Cam McCormick

Last updated

Cam McCormick
Miami Hurricanes–No. 84
Position Tight end
ClassGraduate student
Personal information
Born: (1998-04-02) April 2, 1998 (age 26)
Mesa, Arizona, U.S.
Height6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Weight260 lb (118 kg)
Career history
College
Bowl games
High school Summit (Bend, Oregon)
Career highlights and awards

Cameron McCormick (born April 2, 1998) [1] is an American football tight end for the Miami Hurricanes. [2]

Contents

After suffering multiple season-ending injuries requiring surgeries and living through the COVID-19 pandemic, McCormick was granted his ninth year of NCAA eligibility extending through the 2024 NCAA Division I FBS football season in 2022. [3] He is thought to be the first football player to have been granted such eligibility. [4] [5]

Early life

Cam McCormick was born to father Corey and mother Debra McCormick in Mesa, Arizona on April 2, 1998. His parents met in Arizona, and Corey had been a college baseball player at Arizona State University. Two years after McCormick's birth, his parents were divorced. Debra suffered a bout of melanoma—diagnosed at one point as stage 4—when McCormick was five years old. McCormick and his mother remained in the Phoenix metropolitan area until shortly before McCormick began the second grade in 2006 when his mother moved with him to Pennsylvania. McCormick and his mother returned to the Western United States in 2012, settling down in Bend, Oregon. [1]

High school career

McCormick attended Bend's Summit High School beginning in 2012. He played on the high school's football team throughout his time in high school, though he suffered an ACL tear during September of his senior year and underwent knee surgery on September 15 of that year. [6] McCormick was all but sidelined for the rest of the season; his team went on an Oregon 5A state championship run, and McCormick took the field only while the team was in victory formation. McCormick matriculated at the University of Oregon in the spring of 2016, leaving high school early to enroll in college. [7]

Recruiting

McCormick was a three-star recruit, [8] and The Oregonian listed him as the #2 football prospect in the state of Oregon upon the completion of the 2015 Oregon high school football season. [9] Prior to his enrollment, McCormick committed to Oregon in February 2015. [10]

College career

Oregon

2016: Redshirt season

Following his matriculation at the University of Oregon in the spring of 2016, McCormick redshirted his freshman season while recovering from his knee injury. [11] By August 2016, McCormick had been cleared to fully participate in football activities, though he was required to wear a knee brace. In September 2016, McCormick told The Oregonian that the brace may be blunting his speed, owing to the brace's impact on his natural running motion. [12]

2017: First full season

Following an off-season workout in January 2017, McCormick was hospitalized at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend along with two other Oregon athletes; he remained in the hospital for several days. [13] [14] McCormick, along with two other athletes, exhibited high levels of creatine kinase, indicating possible rhabdomyolysis following their strenuous workout. [15] [16] In response to the hospitalizations, Oregon suspended their strength-and-conditioning coach without pay, among other measures. [15] The two other student-athletes who were hospitalized during this episode later sued Oregon, alleging negligence, in 2019; McCormick did not, saying that he wished to put the situation behind him. [17]

During the 2017 Oregon Ducks football season, McCormick started two games, though his statistics were limited to six catches for eighty-nine yards and one touchdown during a total of thirteen games played. [16] [18]

2018: Multiple leg injuries

McCormick was named as Oregon's starting tight end at the start of their 2018 football season, though his season was cut short due to an injury suffered while playing against the Bowling Green Falcons in Oregon's season opener. [19] The injury, a torn deltoid ligament combined with a broken left fibula, occurred after his teammate blocked a defender into the back of McCormick's leg during the first quarter of the game. [18] McCormick had one reception during the 2018 season opener, losing two yards on the play. [20]

2019: Ankle screw malfunction

Complications with McCormick's leg injuries and the resulting surgeries plagued him for years thereafter. [18] During post-injury surgery, a screw was placed into McCormick's ankle as an anchor for a surgical suture to hold a ligament in place. [18] [21] McCormick had initially appeared to recovered from his surgery well; [18] in April 2019, The Oregonian described his injuries as "fully healed" and described McCormick as "fully recovered" prior to Oregon's spring football game on April 20. [18] [22] But less than one month after the spring football game, new swelling and pain arose in McCormick's left ankle. [18] [21] The screw had failed, and had caused another fracture. [18] Doctors, however, had initially misidentified the injury as being a stress fracture arising from overuse, and recommended that McCormick merely rest in order for his ankle to heal. Rest was ineffective at resolving McCormick's pain in the long run; sharp pain resumed after McCormick worked out, and the true cause of the pain—the malfunctioning of the anchor—was not discovered by doctors until shortly before the third game of the 2019 Oregon Ducks football season. [18] McCormick tried to play for part of that third game, hoping to delay surgery until after the football season, but he could not bear the pain—a second left ankle surgery, to replace the anchor, was performed, and his season once again came to an early end. [18] [21]

2020: Ankle reconstruction

By the start of training camp before the pandemic-shortened 2020 Oregon Ducks football season, McCormick was undertaking limited practice reps, and doctors suspected that he was suffering some sort of tendinitis that was causing him ankle pain. [18] But his injury was not mere tendinitis; he had suffered a posterior tibial tendon rupture caused by two screws that had been inserted during a prior ankle surgery. [18] [21] His pain worsened with time, and he underwent a third surgery on his left ankle, this time performed by the then-team physician of the Green Bay Packers on December 23, 2020. [18] During the 2.5-hour ankle reconstruction surgery, the two ligament-rupturing screws were removed, a tendon transfer was performed, and additional actions were taken to stabilize McCormick's deltoid tendon and left foot more generally. [18] [21]

2021: Torn Achilles tendon

McCormick did not participate in spring football during his recovery in 2021, though he was cleared to return to practice in July of that year. [18] He participated in the 2021 Oregon Ducks football season opener against the Fresno State Bulldogs, seeing action on special teams. [1] He also played and was named the starter during the Ducks' game against the Ohio State Buckeyes, though he exited the game during the second quarter after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in his right foot, [23] [24] a season-ending injury. [25]

2022: Return to the field

McCormick recovered from his Achilles injury and resumed play for the 2022 Oregon Ducks football season. During the regular season, McCormick scored three touchdowns, caught nine passes, and had sixty-four receiving yards. [26] His first touchdown of the year—and his first since 2017—came against the Eastern Washington Eagles; McCormick was wearing the #18 jersey at the time of the touchdown, which was previously worn by Spencer Webb, McCormick's late friend and teammate who had died in a climbing accident two months prior. [1] [27] After playing in the 2022 Holiday Bowl, [28] where he caught one pass for two yards, [29] McCormick finished his 2022 season with a total of ten receptions and sixty-six receiving yards. [25] He played in all of Oregon's thirteen games, [30] and he started six of them. [31] He was also awarded the 2022 Orange Bowl-Football Writers Association of America Courage Award for his comeback from injuries. [32] [33]

By December 2022, owing largely to the injuries he sustained throughout his college football career, McCormick was granted a ninth year of eligibility by the NCAA. [26] [30] [34] At the time, McCormick was considered as unlikely to be selected in the 2023 NFL draft. [26] [33] By then, he had already earned his Bachelor's degree, in journalism, and his Master's degree, in advertising and brand responsibility. [31] [33] On January 10, 2023, after seven years as an Oregon Duck, McCormick entered the NCAA transfer portal. [35]

Miami

2023: Transferring to Miami

McCormick transferred out of Oregon in 2023, entering the University of Miami. [30] He enrolled in a postbaccalaureate program, [30] during which he performs undergraduate coursework. [31] He joined the Miami Hurricanes football team for their 2023 season. [36] During that season, McCormick was a starter for the Hurricanes in eleven games, including the 2023 Pinstripe Bowl, earning six receptions for sixty-two yards. [31] [37]

2024: Ninth year of eligibility

When moving from Oregon to Miami, McCormick left the Pac-12 Conference and joined the Atlantic Coast Conference. [25] As a result, McCormick was required to submit a petition to his new conference to receive a ninth year of eligibility. He did so and was granted a ninth year of eligibility. [2] He is thought to be the first football player to have been granted such eligibility, [4] [5] and he has announced plans to return to the University of Miami for another year to play football during the 2024 Miami Hurricanes football season. [30]

College statistics

SeasonGamesReceiving
GPGSRecYdsAvgTD
Oregon Ducks
2016 00DNP
2017 13268914.81
2018 101–2–2.00
2019 00DNP
2020 00DNP
2021 2111616.00
2022 13610666.63
Miami Hurricanes
2023 13118627.80
2024 0000–0
Career4220262318.94

Personal life

As of 2022, McCormick is estranged from his father, with whom he had not spoken since 2016. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Crepea, James (October 28, 2022). "Oregon Ducks 7th-year senior tight end Cam McCormick endured injuries for 4 seasons, but his deepest wound is not physical". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  2. 1 2 Hale, David (January 18, 2024). "Miami TE Cam McCormick granted ninth year of eligibility". ESPN . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  3. ↑ Navarro, Manny; Feldman, Bruce (January 18, 2024). "Miami TE Cam McCormick returns for his 9th collegiate season". The Athletic . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Miami TE Cam McCormick says he's coming back for 9th year of college". Associated Press . January 18, 2024. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  5. 1 2 Lichtenstein, Adam (January 18, 2024). "Hurricanes tight end Cam McCormick returning for unprecedented ninth year of college football". South Florida Sun-Sentinel . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  6. ↑ Nemec, Andrew (September 15, 2015). "Cam McCormick, Oregon Ducks commit, having surgery Wednesday, planning early enrollment". The Oregonian .
  7. ↑ Martini, Pete (January 22, 2016). "Ducks recruit eager to begin". Statesman Journal . pp.  C1 and C2.
  8. ↑ Wood, Trent (January 18, 2024). "A college football player is returning for his 9th season. Yes, that is a thing". Deseret News . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  9. ↑ Nemec, Andrew (September 20, 2015). "Top 10 Oregon high school football prospects in the class of 2016". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  10. ↑ Nemec, Andrew (September 11, 2015). "Cam McCormick, Summit star and Oregon Ducks commit, out for season with torn ACL". The Oregonian .
  11. ↑ Bieler, Des (January 19, 2024). "Miami's Cam McCormick is back for a ninth college season. Yes, nine". The Washington Post .
  12. ↑ Greif, Andrew (September 30, 2016). "Oregon TE Cam McCormick 'very confident' one year after knee injury: Ducks rundown". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  13. ↑ Greif, Andrew (January 16, 2017). "Multiple Oregon Ducks football players hospitalized after grueling workouts". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  14. ↑ Greif, Andrew (January 19, 2017). "Two Ducks football players remain hospitalized, in good condition". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  15. 1 2 Greif, Andrew (January 20, 2017). "Oregon Ducks football coach Willie Taggart calls hospitalized players tough, defends suspended coach". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  16. 1 2 Greif, Andrew (August 13, 2018). "Oregon Ducks' receivers have heard the concerns, and they're out to show they're misguided". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  17. ↑ Crepea, James (January 12, 2019). "Third Oregon football player hospitalized after 2017 workouts announces he won't file lawsuit against UO". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Fentress, Aaron (September 11, 2021). "Oregon Ducks tight end Cam McCormick overcomes 3 years of surgeries, setbacks with the help of his devoted mom: 'She pushed me to not want to quit'". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  19. ↑ Greif, Andrew (September 3, 2018). "Oregon Ducks tight end Cam McCormick out for season with broken leg". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  20. ↑ "Cam McCormick: Game Log". ESPN . 2018. Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Hansen, Chris (August 16, 2021). "Oregon Ducks tight end Cam McCormick's three-year fight with an ankle injury nearly over". The Register-Guard . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  22. ↑ Goe, Ken (April 16, 2019). "Oregon Ducks tight end Cam McCormick is healthy now, and the big, physical junior is a load". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  23. ↑ Thompson, Jackson (January 18, 2024). "Miami Tight End Cam McCormick Granted Unprecedented Ninth College Season of Eligibility". The Messenger . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  24. ↑ Fentress, Aaron (September 14, 2021). "Oregon Ducks tight end Cam McCormick suffered torn right Achilles at Ohio State, remains positive: 'He's doing well'". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  25. 1 2 3 Axson, Scooby (September 20, 2023). "Decade of college? Miami tight end petitioning to play ninth season of college football". USA Today . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  26. 1 2 3 Crepea, James (December 16, 2022). "Oregon Ducks tight end Cam McCormick considering returning for 8th season, granted 9th year of eligibility". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  27. ↑ Hansen, Chris (September 12, 2022). "'An unreal moment': Oregon's Cam McCormick scores while wearing fallen teammate's jersey". The Register-Guard . Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  28. ↑ Nivison, Austin (December 17, 2022). "Oregon TE Cam McCormick granted ninth year of eligibility, remains undecided about returning in 2023". CBS Sports . Archived from the original on September 21, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  29. ↑ "Cam McCormick: Game Log". ESPN . 2024.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 Straka, Dean (January 18, 2024). "Miami's Cam McCormick returning in 2024: How 'Canes TE became eligible for ninth season of college football". CBS Sports . Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  31. 1 2 3 4 Navarro, Manny; Feldman, Bruce (January 18, 2024). "Miami TE Cam McCormick returns for his 9th collegiate season". The Athletic . Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  32. ↑ Crepea, James (December 14, 2022). "Oregon Ducks tight end Cam McCormick wins Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  33. 1 2 3 Morgan, Joe (December 17, 2022). "Oregon tight end granted ninth year of eligibility, may return for eighth season". Fox News . Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  34. ↑ Chavkin, Daniel (December 17, 2022). "NCAA Grants Oregon's Cam McCormick a Ninth Year of Eligibility". Sports Illustrated . Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  35. ↑ Hansen, Chris (January 11, 2023). "Tight end Cam McCormick enters transfer portal after seven seasons at Oregon". The Register-Guard . Archived from the original on January 23, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  36. ↑ "Miami (Fla.) TE Cam McCormick returning for ninth year of college football". Fox Sports . January 18, 2024. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
  37. ↑ Crepea, James (January 9, 2024). "How former Oregon Ducks fared in bowl games". The Oregonian .
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