'Experience Matters' To Miami's Shannon Dawson As Spring Practice Gets Intense
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CORAL GABLES — Cam Ward, Carson Beck, and Darian Mensah all have one thing in common when they entered Coral Gables to work under Miami Hurricanes offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson: experience.
"Yeah, I mean, experience matters, and experienced guys would experience their learning curves typically shorter," Dawson said after Thursday's spring practice. "You know, I mean, the grasp of the offense. I mean, you take last year, Carson was a very unique situation because you didn't go through spring. And then he didn't even throw most of the summer. So he didn't get clear till close to camp, and then we had Notre Dame game one.
"And so, he learned the offense in a different way, it wasn't from reps. It was more from watching reps and meeting and doing all the other stuff. And so, it's nice to have a quarterback go through spring, obviously, and get reps and make those mistakes in spring practice to where, you know, you're on the exact same page, when it comes time that you need to be on the exact same page."
Mensah has been lights out for the Hurricanes early on in the season, but it also helps when others around him have experience in Dawson's system to work with. Those systems are built to highlight the talent in the room, and the 'Canes have some of the best talent in the country.
"I want their personality to shine through, and I've said this a million times to recruits and our quarterbacks, too, is like, the offense will morph around you," Dawson said. "I don't try to force-feed a certain way. Like, however, your personality is, this offense is gonna morph around you, and so certain things that you do well will shine because that's just the way we'll go."
That experience continues with the running back room. The Hurricanes return their entire room from last season, with Mark Fletcher Jr., Jordan Lyle, ChaMar Brown, and Girard Pringle Jr. Dawson understands how rare that is in college football and is comfortable with anyone who gets the call.
"Yeah, I mean, their running back room is obviously a huge stream, and we're stacked in that room," Dawson said. "I mean, we were comfortable, we're gonna be comfortable with the fourth or fifth guy probably playing in that room, which is a great thing."
However, the Hurricanes lack the same experience on the offensive line, but Dawson remains optimistic about his line.
"Coach Mirabal and the offensive line staff have done a great job of making sure that room's really talented," Dawson said. "I'm excited about the young guys that are playing for us up front, and it's hard to, you know, nonpadded practices are very hard to evaluate up front at some, at times, because they you need pads on, but from what I've seen so far, I mean, we're gonna have some guys that probably you guys haven't talked about a lot that are that are gonna shine up there.
"And so we're excited about the new blood up front, and so and that's why spring's important, so you got guys that replace guys that have played a lot of snaps, and so this is their time to compete. And we're gonna gonna move people around and see where they fit the best."
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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.
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