Miami Hurricanes offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson spoke with the media ahead of the Wake Forest matchup. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On Darian Mensah decision making: He's a very accurate thrower of the ball. Our protection's been good. It all works together, as we talk about a good bit. Our receiving core is in the right spot at the right time, and he has a really good grasp of what we're doing. Ball's out on time, and it's typically to the right person, and it's typically accurate. And if those things exist, then, you can play very efficiently in the pass game. Now, all those things must exist, right? It starts up front with protection, and then we have a bunch of receivers playing at a high level, and, it isn't just about one guy, obviously. You got to have good players around you to be that efficient. So, very fortunate.
On Luke Nickel and Dereon Coleman: I thought they both played really well. Luke went in, and so he played the majority of the third quarter, right? And so we were still attacking down the field at that point, because I want him to go in there and run the offense, and it wasn't just, like, dink-and-dunk passes with him. So he was making some really, really elite throws down the field, and I thought he played really well. And then when Dereon Coleman. went in there, obviously the game was a little bit further out of hand. We still wanted him to run the offense, but I was trying to chop away the clock a little more. So he didn't have the opportunities down the field that the other two had, but I thought he played really, really well. Tough. He was in there, and the ball went to the right spot, and they all three took care of the ball, which was awesome. And the ball's going to the right spot, and the communication was good. A lot of times when you play your first game, you go out there and, you feel a certain way, and he's as calm as there is. His pulse is really low. And so he's a talented, talented young man.
On freshman RB Javian Mallory's traits: He’s big. He’s strong. He’s fast. He has good mobility. He has good vision. He’s hard to tackle. And so he just has a lot of characteristics. He’s built well, like, where are you gonna hit him? You know what I mean? He’s just hard to bring down. And he’s one of the backs that seem to find the soft spot in the run a lot. He just has good natural vision, and he finds it. And so, fortunate to have him.
On underclassmen earning his trust: We talked about this before game one, that when you see people play a lot, what that means is we trust them, because typically coaches don't play people they don't trust. And so with the number of people we have going into games, and really the first half too, if you look at it, there's like six or seven receivers rolling in the game. Now in the second half, everybody played, but ultimately through the course of the first half, we were rolling a good bit of people too. Daylyn [Upshaw] and Joshua [Moore] rolling one-to-one. Dre [Jacobs] is rolling in there. [Somourian] Wingo is getting in there. So there's a lot of people that we trust to be in the game, and I think part of that is we've recruited at a high level, and there's competition at those positions, and we want to keep that competition going. And when you trust a lot of people, I want to be fresh towards the end of the season and the end of the game. So I do want to roll as many receivers as we can roll. It's the same way with the running back position. I want to have it to where a group of guys are running the ball well. That way, you know, God forbid something happens, you have people with experience, but ultimately you are very, you know, your health and your energy at the end of the game is high.
On Vance Spafford first touchdown: Well, I mean, I thought the ball probably should have went to somebody else, to be quite honest with you. Anytime somebody makes a play that's that, like, that many people around, you know, the ball probably should have went to Wingo on the big. But ultimately, I do tell quarterbacks this a lot. It's like if you are very decisive, a lot of times problems come when you're indecisive. But if you're decisive and you commit to it, a lot of times it works out, even when it isn't the exact right read. If the timing's right and you just commit to it, and he did. He committed to it and threw it, and Vance made a great play. I slowed that play down many times, and I still don't know how the **** he caught it, because the ball was, like, the defender was in between him and the ball. There was two defenders there, so I have no idea how he caught it. But you can see how Vance is viewed because of what happened after he caught it. I mean, there's a lot of people pulling for him because of what he's done on Green Tree. He practices his tail off every day. He's a very talented guy, and everybody on that sideline was excited to see him score his first touchdown. And what a first touchdown, right? I mean, you'll remember that one forever.
On the Wake Forest defense: Their D-line is a problem. Their D-line gets after it, and they really, make the pocket muddy. They do a good job in the run game of stopping the run. Their safety number five is elite when it comes to coming downhill and tackling. Their linebackers are very physical. They're a very sound scheme defense. They're not gonna let the ball get behind them. They're gonna keep the ball in front, and, really they're gonna keep the ball in front, stop the run, and affect the quarterback. And that's the three things they do really well.
On the offensive line: I thought our communication was really good last week. The first week, and I will say this, we did come out at the beginning of that game and they were in some funky fronts. I don't know if they were misaligned or not, but our communication in a couple plays were not what we want it to be. And this past week was on point. Like, communication is so key. Everybody's got to be on the same page. O-line communicate. It's difficult because they communicate backwards, right, to the running backs. And so the quarterback's got to communicate forward. And so that three-way communication, especially in pass protection, is vital. And so if they're not all on the same page, you have no chance. And so we do a lot of work and a lot of meetings, and Coach Mirabal is the lead at making sure that everybody's on the same page when it comes to protection, specifically in third down situations and other red zone things. And so that was critical, and we went, I think we took our best stride in that area from game one to game two.
On Miami's third-down execution: Everything tightens on third down. If you look at what the defensive coordinator every week spends most of the time on, it's third down: third and medium, third and long, getting you off the field. That's what I spend the majority of my time on, is making sure that offensively we have a good plan on third down, because third downs keep drives going. You're not always trying to get it on third down either. There's times when you cross midfield that there might, like, for instance, I don't know if you remember the play, but we froze Stanford on a third and 10, it was like on the 30-yard line, and we got half of it because they jumped. It was when we threw in the end zone. But then the very next play wasn't a play that I was calling to get the first down. I was really calling that play to maybe get it, but I would get close, I would go for it. And so Coach does a good job of just being in my ear, like, Hey, like you got two plays, or you don't have two plays. And so ultimately my point with all of that is sometimes third downs are misleading because sometimes you go for it on fourth down. Does that make sense? Now ultimately on that third down we got it, and so we threw the screen to Mali out there. But ultimately having a great plan on third down, it all comes back to protection, because that's the hardest thing to do on third down. Typically they have their best pass rushers in the game, their best cover guys. They're going to take the guys that can't cover off the field, and so a lot of times on third down they know what you're doing, meaning that they know you're passing it, right? That way sometimes you can pop a run on third and nine, third and ten, but ultimately statistically they know you're throwing the football. So they're not worried about run fits. They have their ears pinned back. They have their best blitz on and their best coverage. So you have to be on point on third down.
On Darian Mensah decision making: He's a very accurate thrower of the ball. Our protection's been good. It all works together, as we talk about a good bit. Our receiving core is in the right spot at the right time, and he has a really good grasp of what we're doing. Ball's out on time, and it's typically to the right person, and it's typically accurate. And if those things exist, then, you can play very efficiently in the pass game. Now, all those things must exist, right? It starts up front with protection, and then we have a bunch of receivers playing at a high level, and, it isn't just about one guy, obviously. You got to have good players around you to be that efficient. So, very fortunate.
On Luke Nickel and Dereon Coleman: I thought they both played really well. Luke went in, and so he played the majority of the third quarter, right? And so we were still attacking down the field at that point, because I want him to go in there and run the offense, and it wasn't just, like, dink-and-dunk passes with him. So he was making some really, really elite throws down the field, and I thought he played really well. And then when Dereon Coleman. went in there, obviously the game was a little bit further out of hand. We still wanted him to run the offense, but I was trying to chop away the clock a little more. So he didn't have the opportunities down the field that the other two had, but I thought he played really, really well. Tough. He was in there, and the ball went to the right spot, and they all three took care of the ball, which was awesome. And the ball's going to the right spot, and the communication was good. A lot of times when you play your first game, you go out there and, you feel a certain way, and he's as calm as there is. His pulse is really low. And so he's a talented, talented young man.
On freshman RB Javian Mallory's traits: He’s big. He’s strong. He’s fast. He has good mobility. He has good vision. He’s hard to tackle. And so he just has a lot of characteristics. He’s built well, like, where are you gonna hit him? You know what I mean? He’s just hard to bring down. And he’s one of the backs that seem to find the soft spot in the run a lot. He just has good natural vision, and he finds it. And so, fortunate to have him.
On underclassmen earning his trust: We talked about this before game one, that when you see people play a lot, what that means is we trust them, because typically coaches don't play people they don't trust. And so with the number of people we have going into games, and really the first half too, if you look at it, there's like six or seven receivers rolling in the game. Now in the second half, everybody played, but ultimately through the course of the first half, we were rolling a good bit of people too. Daylyn [Upshaw] and Joshua [Moore] rolling one-to-one. Dre [Jacobs] is rolling in there. [Somourian] Wingo is getting in there. So there's a lot of people that we trust to be in the game, and I think part of that is we've recruited at a high level, and there's competition at those positions, and we want to keep that competition going. And when you trust a lot of people, I want to be fresh towards the end of the season and the end of the game. So I do want to roll as many receivers as we can roll. It's the same way with the running back position. I want to have it to where a group of guys are running the ball well. That way, you know, God forbid something happens, you have people with experience, but ultimately you are very, you know, your health and your energy at the end of the game is high.
On Vance Spafford first touchdown: Well, I mean, I thought the ball probably should have went to somebody else, to be quite honest with you. Anytime somebody makes a play that's that, like, that many people around, you know, the ball probably should have went to Wingo on the big. But ultimately, I do tell quarterbacks this a lot. It's like if you are very decisive, a lot of times problems come when you're indecisive. But if you're decisive and you commit to it, a lot of times it works out, even when it isn't the exact right read. If the timing's right and you just commit to it, and he did. He committed to it and threw it, and Vance made a great play. I slowed that play down many times, and I still don't know how the **** he caught it, because the ball was, like, the defender was in between him and the ball. There was two defenders there, so I have no idea how he caught it. But you can see how Vance is viewed because of what happened after he caught it. I mean, there's a lot of people pulling for him because of what he's done on Green Tree. He practices his tail off every day. He's a very talented guy, and everybody on that sideline was excited to see him score his first touchdown. And what a first touchdown, right? I mean, you'll remember that one forever.
On the Wake Forest defense: Their D-line is a problem. Their D-line gets after it, and they really, make the pocket muddy. They do a good job in the run game of stopping the run. Their safety number five is elite when it comes to coming downhill and tackling. Their linebackers are very physical. They're a very sound scheme defense. They're not gonna let the ball get behind them. They're gonna keep the ball in front, and, really they're gonna keep the ball in front, stop the run, and affect the quarterback. And that's the three things they do really well.
On the offensive line: I thought our communication was really good last week. The first week, and I will say this, we did come out at the beginning of that game and they were in some funky fronts. I don't know if they were misaligned or not, but our communication in a couple plays were not what we want it to be. And this past week was on point. Like, communication is so key. Everybody's got to be on the same page. O-line communicate. It's difficult because they communicate backwards, right, to the running backs. And so the quarterback's got to communicate forward. And so that three-way communication, especially in pass protection, is vital. And so if they're not all on the same page, you have no chance. And so we do a lot of work and a lot of meetings, and Coach Mirabal is the lead at making sure that everybody's on the same page when it comes to protection, specifically in third down situations and other red zone things. And so that was critical, and we went, I think we took our best stride in that area from game one to game two.
On Miami's third-down execution: Everything tightens on third down. If you look at what the defensive coordinator every week spends most of the time on, it's third down: third and medium, third and long, getting you off the field. That's what I spend the majority of my time on, is making sure that offensively we have a good plan on third down, because third downs keep drives going. You're not always trying to get it on third down either. There's times when you cross midfield that there might, like, for instance, I don't know if you remember the play, but we froze Stanford on a third and 10, it was like on the 30-yard line, and we got half of it because they jumped. It was when we threw in the end zone. But then the very next play wasn't a play that I was calling to get the first down. I was really calling that play to maybe get it, but I would get close, I would go for it. And so Coach does a good job of just being in my ear, like, Hey, like you got two plays, or you don't have two plays. And so ultimately my point with all of that is sometimes third downs are misleading because sometimes you go for it on fourth down. Does that make sense? Now ultimately on that third down we got it, and so we threw the screen to Mali out there. But ultimately having a great plan on third down, it all comes back to protection, because that's the hardest thing to do on third down. Typically they have their best pass rushers in the game, their best cover guys. They're going to take the guys that can't cover off the field, and so a lot of times on third down they know what you're doing, meaning that they know you're passing it, right? That way sometimes you can pop a run on third and nine, third and ten, but ultimately statistically they know you're throwing the football. So they're not worried about run fits. They have their ears pinned back. They have their best blitz on and their best coverage. So you have to be on point on third down.
