Everything Miami Offensive Coordinator Shannon Dawson Said During Miami's Fiesta Bowl Media Day
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The Miami Hurricanes have gone through another media, and this time, the Canes are prepared for one of the most explosive offenses in the country.
One explosive offense has to be matched with another, and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson knows it.
Dawson spoke with the media ahead of the Fiesta Bowl as he prepares his offense for a battle of attrition.
Q. Shannon, the last two games, defense has done a good job of bottling up Malachi [Toney], especially against Ohio State. How big has CJ [Daniels] been?
COACH DAWSON: Huge. As the season goes, the defensive coordinators are keying in on your best players and so other people have to step up. We have to do a good job of putting those guys in those positions and giving them opportunities, which happened. But I did think that was key in that game, was other guys stepping up and making plays. I think, if I remember correctly, all three had five catches. It got spread around. They did a decent job of keeping the top on the coverage. I thought we would have more deep shots than we did. We had a couple, but we didn't hit either one of them. I kind of knew that game was going to be a methodical drive game, probably on both sides. I thought we did a really good job of -- third downs were elite. We were over 50%, and they were very good. We got in manageable third downs and guys like CJ. And Keelan [Marian] and Mali would get underneath.
Q. Coach, what have you done with Carson Beck to make him better this year?
COACH DAWSON: What have I done with him to make him better? I think our system is a quarterback-friendly system. I think my personality is very – I kind of morph into what the quarterback needs. I want to say I have a servant mentality. It's not about me. I don't play quarterback. I haven't thrown a ball for a long time, except at practice, and it doesn't look very well. Ultimately, I try very hard to figure out their comfort zone and what they need and what environment makes them grow and feel the most comfortable. And I think that's different with every player. That's part of our job as coaches. I think there's just two different ways to think about it. One is you do what you do, and they've got to do it regardless. And mine is more of I'm trying to figure out what this guy is comfortable doing. And there's plays that we probably ran the year before that we don't want as much this year. And there's plays we run this year more than we did last year, based on how he sees things and how he feels. If that answers your question, I don't know. I think finding ways to create an environment where those guys feel comfortable in their own skin is important.
Q. What is Carson Beck's strength with this Miami offense?
COACH DAWSON: His superpower is understanding football. He dissects the game very quickly in the run and pass game. In the run game, he does things that are next level, as far as getting people moved around and targeted up. Our run-game system has grown over time, and it takes a guy to understand where the fits are, especially with receivers and how their safeties are fitting or who the extra fitter is. So he's really elite at that. And in the pass game, he takes care of the football, needs to keep taking care of the football.
Q. Carson Beck's obviously a great processor. He was able to make plays with his legs.
COACH DAWSON: Yes, over the last month of the season, I said, ‘Get some nagging yards when something isn't there.’ We talk about our process in the pass game is pretty solid, but I always – if I'm watching film with him or we're talking about a certain concept, we're a progression-based offense. Look, man, your eyes are here and we go here, here, here. And if you exhaust all your options, like, give me three yards. What I typically say is get me five or 55, either one. I don't care. But I have emphasized lately that being third and four is better than being third and 8. And second and 4 is better than being second and 9. So having even two or three yards at times makes the play call completely different. I don't know how many yards he had in that game, but he did an elite job of going forward when nothing was there. And they put us into some really manageable third downs.
Q. You mentioned the methodical drives, one the moral-sucking killer drives. I know you had one against Florida and one against Ohio State – I'm sure I missed a couple – where you're just pounding the rock and keeping sucking on the opponent.
COACH DAWSON: We trust our big guys up front. We feel that's the strength of our offense. And we have some backs that can get some muddy, bloody yards. And I think the key is success early. If you look at those drives, typically, we've had -- we've had some success early in the drive, which allows you to keep grinding it. If you don't, you have to switch plans, right? Ultimately, I got to get a first down. And so I think those guys up front, bullying in those situations is huge, running backs knowing that they are going to commit a lot of people to the box when they know you are running the ball. And so those yards are harder to get, and we have guys that buy into those muddy yards.
Q. What are the conversations like between you and Mario on those drives? Because you like to run the ball too, but he's a ground-and-pound type of guy. What are the conversations like when you are in the middle of one of those drives?
COACH DAWSON: He does a really good job of just echoing “be aggressive.” It doesn't mean – “be aggressive,” there's a lot of different meanings to it. One is, look, I know that we have to run the ball in certain situations because of how the game is going. Nobody has to tell me we need to huddle and milk the clock, snap it at one second, and all that stuff. It's re-integrated from coach to me, just in those situations, because that's the time in the game. Ultimately, when it gets to third down is when the conversations are the most important because, ultimately, I need to know how aggressive we want to be. Ultimately, sometimes on third and 8, if the team doesn't have any timeouts or has one timeout, the right thing to do is run the football and make them use a timeout. Does that make sense? And there are times we have to get the first down.
Q. I'm sure you looked at a whole lot of Ole Miss. When they played Georgia the first time, they couldn't stop them, couldn't get off the field. What is the difference with the Ole Miss defense as they progressed over the year?
COACH DAWSON: I think they gained confidence over the year. Confidence is key on both sides. They are in the situation where they are a lot like us. They are picking up momentum at the right time and their defense is playing much better now than probably they did at the beginning of the year. Good coaches typically find identities to groups. Sometimes it doesn't happen in the first game or the second game or the third game. Sometimes that happens over the course of the season. Those guys, they play exceptionally hard. They are very athletic. Their edge guys can bend the edge, and they are very disruptive up front. They do a lot of movement, a lot of things that give people trouble. They probably do a little bit more of that lately. That might have more to do with their success too. Georgia did have some success running the football against them the first time. I thought Ole Miss Played very well.
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.