Everything Miami Offensive Coordinator Shannon Dawson Said ahead of No. 7 Texas A&M

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Miami Hurricanes' offense has a rhythm in the final four games of the season. Quarterback Carson Beck has looked elite, and superstar wide receiver Malachi Toney has been lights out.

However, offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson is preparing for one of the most aggressive defenses he has seen all season against No. 7 Texas A&M.

Dawson spoke with the media on Monday to lay out the ideas that he had, as well as how his star players have prepared and looked ahead of the first playoff game in program history.

On What Stands Out on the Aggies Defense

I mean, you know, number one in the nation in sacks. Their third-down defense is really good, you know, obviously, the players they have have something to do with it, but I think Elco does an elite job with the packages and the blitzes and the patterns that he brings.

He's got to do a really good job in protection, you know, and then you got to do a good job of stranding to get open, but, you know, where they've gotten people a lot is when they get you in third down, they're just the patterns they bring are tough. And so, you gotta do a great job of protection. Your eyes have to be really dialed in and running back to who you have.  And so we've just got to be on point in protection

On Dealing with the Crowd

You know, We use crowd noise a lot to practice, and so it's loud enough that we can't hear ourselves communicate.  We know what we're getting into there. I mean, they have a great atmosphere. We have mechanisms in place to handle any crowd noise, and so we feel very comfortable as the season has progressed.  You know, we had some issues with pre-snap penalties, but we haven't had any issues after we've addressed a few things, and we feel very confident in our ability to communicate and process without pre-snap penalties.

On what has improved with years of him being OC

Mindset. I think our confidence in our mindset has improved, and, you know, when you first get somewhere, you have to get to know the place and get to know the kids. And I think we were right at 100 in a Nation on my offense then, and so there's a process to changing your mentality.  You know, scheme matters, and all that stuff matters, and players matter, but if you don't change your mentality and get to the point where you know you're good, and you go out there, and you play with extreme confidence and extreme strain and play fast. And so our mentality right now is really good. Like, we have a firm belief in ourselves, and we're in sync, we're communicating well, guys are making plays when they need to make plays.  And so, really, I mean, if you ask me one thing, it'd be the mindset of the group.

On the Development of Francis Mauigoa

What if I said no? I couldn't put it in words.  You know, that's a tough question because the kid believed when nobody else believed, right? He came here, everybody knows when he came here, it wasn't necessarily where it's at right now. So you got to give a lot of credit to guys that can see before they believe, right?  And so or believe before they see. And so, his character is so steady. I mean, his ability is obviously what it is, but his character and his leadership or what put him over the top.  He's just a phenomenal kid to be around. And so he's been steady, caught a touchdown pass this year, which I was happy for him, and so it's been an awesome, awesome dude.

On how Aggressive the Aggies Defense is...

Yeah, man, you know, on third downs, probably, you know, I mean, you know, I do think that there's been a couple of teams that have had pretty good third down plans.  Typically, D coordinators put a lot of emphasis on third down because that's the last play of the drive. So you're always going to see some creative stuff on third downs. But yeah, they're super aggressive, and they're going to bring pressure from a lot of different angles, and we just have to be in tune.  You know, quarterbacks eyes have to be good, receivers' eyes have to be good'cause that ball's got to get out quick at times. And so but they are a zone pressure, mostly, and so they're gonna have people dropping out, so you've got to be aware of that also. So it puts some challenges on us, you know, and not too many people have been very successful on them in third down, so it'll be a great challenge.  I mean, we've been pretty good on third down this year, too. And so it'll be a great challenge. I think we'll be ready for it.

On His Name Being Looked Around as Being a Head Coach

I mean, it's easy because I don't do anything in that area unless A, it gets to a certain point. You have people hired to handle all that stuff. And so if it gets to a certain point and things have to be talked about, then you do it on days, you're not doing anything.  It's very simple. It's not complicated. I mean, our calendars, it's challenging because everything kind of merges together at the end, and so but my focus is on one thing.  And so I have people in my life that take care of that, and, you know, if it gets to the point where I have to address it, it gets addressed in times where I'm not doing anything here, 'cause this Trump's anything that would ever come in that world

On Carson Beck's Experience and Looking to Lean on Him

I mean, you know, when you're the quarterback and you have a challenge ahead, like we have with their defense, I mean, you got to be poised in the pocket.  There's going to be some major bullet flatting around you, so poise is crucial. Pocket of aware it's poise. He's been in big games.  You know, this is nothing that he hasn't been in, and so I do think that that matters. And so his poise is gonna be, you know, basically contagious through the whole group. And so, you know, yeah, I do think that it's gonna go, look, at some point, both teams are gonna come to a situation where it's gonna be a crucial time in the game and we got to make a play.  And it's no different on their side. And so the team that makes that play is probably going to win the game. And so your players, your best players have to be their best in those times.  And so he's very aware of that.

On How They Changed Their Mindset

I think it's very simple. mentality is caught, not taught. And so does that make sense?  And so people try to create these formulas about, you know, positive attitude, belief, and all that. Ultimately, it's not taught. People try to teach it.  There's no teaching, it's cult. And so I have to be the one that is the example first, and then hopefully my attitude and my belief is worth catching. And if I can get two or three other guys to believe, then they're attitude becomes worth catching.  And so it's very contagious.

You know, sadly, so is a bad one, right? And so, I think the baseline of being very consistent every day with your attitude is the most important.  You know, there's no magic formula, there's no magic plate, there's no magic scheme. A lot of teams are doing very similar stuff, right? And so the people that do it the best will ultimately win the games.  It's no different with the mindset. So if you're sitting there looking at a mindset of a group and you want to change it, then first of all, you're attitude has to be worth catching. And if it isn't, then you don't have the chance.  And so then, ultimately, the best players in the room and the best leaders in the room start influencing the people around them. And that's all leadership is. Leadership is influence.

And so you don't have to be a starter or a great player to influence somebody. You can influence the guy besides you by being nice to him, or being a certain way to him. That's gonna change his day. and that's gonna change his outset.  And so the more I can get individual people to graph on to the fact that they're inspiring the people around them and their circle, because everybody's got different little pods of circles, right? So if I can get people injected into those circles to have attitudes worth catching and in the whole group can catch it. It's a long answer to a short question.

On Malachi Toney's Impact

I don't know if it's anything about him.  He's been the same person since the beginning, but I do think that having an understanding that the kid should be in high school is still, you know, so if you if you go back and look at how the season has progressed, there's there's a journey, right? And if you let that journey just play out, you know, we're sitting there through camp and this kid's making plays every day at practice. And so you're like, in your mind, you're like,Man, this kid's got a chance to be special."  But ultimately, practice doesn't matter. You guys aren't out there, you know, they don't have a, you know, 80,000 people come watch practice.

So ultimately, you have to do it in the game.  And so I was hoping that, you know, he would carry that ability over to a game, the game wouldn't be quote unquote too big for him, right? Because sometimes you see that with young guys. He'll come, they'll have great practices and they don't necessarily translate to a game until later in their career.  Does that make sense? So with him, the hope was like, "Hey, I hope this translates into a game." And then it was pretty obvious in the first game that he made place and the game was not too big for him.  

And so he just kept stacking games and stacking games. Now, then, it became a process of like, hey, this kid can do a lot more. So let's push the limits of what we can do with him.  So then it started becoming, hey, you know, let's have a, you know, the Malikat package for him, you know? And socause the kid can throw, and not only can he throw, he can, like, read a progression, like, the first guy doesn't have to be open for him to go and throw it to the next guy. And so his capacity is just just different.  It's unique.

And so I'm just trying to push the limits of what he can handle through the course of a game. And so we do a lot of different things with him.  And so and that's just going to continue as his career goes. I mean, it's been a building block of every week leading, you know, through the season. And you can see how it's kind of gone lately over the past month, month and a half.  It's just been more and more and more. And so just trying to find unique ways to use his ability is is the key

On Trying to Improve the Running Game

Yeah, I mean, we're just focusing on running it up the middle more, because that would tend to lead to more explosive plays. You know, I mean, look, we just got to stick with it, you know, I mean, you know, there's been games where we've ran the ball really well, and there've been games where defenses have stacked the box and made us do other things.  And so I think that we have the ability to stretch you in a lot of different ways. I think we've been running the ball really efficient the last month. And we have people that can be explosive with the ball, you know, so I don't view it probably like you view it, but ultimately, I get, sometimes stats don't paint all the whole picture, you know?  And so we've been pretty efficient in the run game. Now, I would like to be more explosive, yes. And so and I think, you know, I think that's coming...

Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University and is the site lead for the Miami Hurricanes on SI. He can be reached at Twitter @Justice_News5.