On Monday afternoon, Miami Hurricanes offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson spoke with the media, recapping the 52-3 win over the Central Michigan Chippewas and the upcoming game against the Clemson Tigers. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On how Darian Mensah prepares himself for another game and how he execute so well: Yeah, I mean, I think he does prepare himself, which is huge. I mean, he's up here all the time. He understands, when we go into the game, exactly what we want to do. He's very vocal, too, on what he likes, which I like that. I like guys that communicate to me, like, Hey, I like this, and I really, you know, don't like this, or at least prioritize it. I like this more than this, and so he's pretty vocal with things like that. But ultimately, his skill set's a good fit for what we do because he can sit in the pocket and he's very accurate. His eyes are always right. He burns his eyes on his reads and typically makes the right decision, and the ball comes out on time. I thought we did a really good job this game of extending when it wasn't there. That was a huge emphasis from two weeks ago into this week was just, man, sometimes people aren't going to be open, and sometimes the pocket isn't going to be perfect, and so, like when that happens, the play isn't over. We got to keep playing. In this game, he scrambled and ran a couple times, ran a touchdown, and then he extended a couple times and threw the ball downfield, which is a huge step for us offensively.
On how Darian keeps improving Every week: He brings the same energy and same intensity to every practice and every game. At this point, we depend on him to be Mali, and also, we also know that other people are going to step up and make plays too, which happened in that game, and that's going to happen through the rest of the year. I mean, the ball's going to find the people that are open and people are going to focus on him. We know that. We have to do a good job of hiding him and moving him around, which we do, but, he wears a jersey number and people are going to look at it and know where he's at. So, it is what it is.
On getting Cooper Barkate more involved: He was open. And that's typically—you guys think I'm crazy when I say that, but, he the first read on a lot of things. And so, but, there was certain situations where the touchdown, they didn't have a safety in the middle of the field. If they had a safety in the middle of the field, the ball wouldn't have went to him. I'm not psychic, so I don't know what they're playing. And so ultimately, you have to do your job every play because you don't know when the opportunity's going to come. And so I thought he played really, really well. He had a lot of opportunities at the beginning, and he's going to continue getting those opportunities. I was more frustrated than the week before because I know the player he is, And obviously in those specific situations where I'm watching film and, like, the ball should go to him, like, it just wasn't connecting in the second half of that game. And so that was the more frustrating. It wasn't about him specifically. It was about I wanted it for him. I want him to have those opportunities.
On preseason rankings: There should be no such thing as preseason rankings. That's the most ridiculous thing on the planet, and that is the stupidest thing, because people weigh those things way heavier than they should. You shouldn't have a ranking until October. How do you know? A&M's ranked in the top five. How does that look right now? I mean, there's multiple teams, and if anything is predictable of the future, it's the past. Go look at the top 10 last year. I did. Five of them weren't even in the top 25. So we sit here and look at schedules and we're like, and obviously everything's SEC, SEC. Well, look. Yeah, they have all their teams in the top 25. Guess what? Good for you. At the end of the year, half of them will be in the top 30. That's just the way it is. And so we can't sit here and look at, Hey, we play X number of top 25. We don't know that. We'll count those chips up at the end of the year, but that's why there shouldn't be rankings, because you give people talking points that are idiots that don't know what they're doing. Play the game. Play every week. It's like playing poker. Count the chips up at the end. You don't know at the beginning. The fact that we have preseason rankings is unbelievable to me, and the fact that people pay attention to them is more... it's unbelievable.
On watching Clemson's defense on film: They have probably a handful of first, second-round players, and when you look at the skill set of defenses, when they have that many NFL players, typically they're pretty good, right? And so the way I look at them is simple, man. They're hard to beat at their place. They're hard to beat in general. I don't know if they've gotten beat at their place a ton over the last decade. That place is tough to play. We know that, and they're getting better every week. I know everybody looks at the first game. Georgia beat them by a lot a few years ago too in the first game, and they went to the college playoffs. And so we know they're a good team. We know that they're well-coached. They have a lot of pride. We know a lot about those guys, and we expect their very best, which we get everybody's very best anyway in general, but we're looking forward to a great atmosphere and going up there and playing a great football team.
On grading Darian Mensah’s film and finding areas for improvement despite his elite numbers: Well, I mean, not hard, because there's always growth. You watch film, and, man, there's always something you can improve on. And I make this point to quarterbacks at the beginning of every year. I mean, one of the best—you know, everybody can argue about the greatest quarterback to ever play. I mean, Tom Brady's either the greatest or one of two, right? Or whatever, in the conversation. In my opinion, the greatest, but that's neither here nor there. That dude was working on something every year, and he was the best, right? And so if you don't think that you need to be working on something, then you're delusional. And so it's very easy to me because you can point out, like, I can point out—I mean, I got a play, the sack we took at the beginning, man, you got to get rid of the ball. You know, I mean, that's a D-tackle that looped around. That guy shouldn't sack you. You know what I mean? So it's easy to be critical because there's always going to be clips that, man, we can do better. And I'm the same way with myself. I mean, look, you mentioned the second half of that game. I mean, I've watched that probably 20 times. What should I have called? Why did I call this? I mean, ****, I go through every little thing. When a drive, that first drive of the game Saturday, I mean, I've watched that 10, 15, 20 times. I mean, why did we jump offsides when we hadn't jumped offsides all year? Not one, right? And so, sometimes there isn't a clear answer, but ultimately when those things happen, the biggest thing, especially after the first drive, because we didn't score on the first drive, but we scored on every one after that, really, but was just not make it a bigger problem. There is a little bit of, hey, settle down, like just play ball, right? And so I do believe that especially offensive football is played at a higher level when you're even-keeled, when you're not too high or too low, right? You want to be intense. You want to have an edge and all that, but if you get too worked up, it can kind of work against you on offense. There's a little bit of a tipping point there. So I felt like we were worked up in that game because we, as a staff, we had emphasized, starting strong, finishing, staying focused for every play and having every play its lifespan, and then we get out there and, man, we go backwards on the first drive. And that happens. You know, people that watch college football all around, every drive don't end up in a pretty picture score, you know. And so how you handle those drives and that adversity really is a testament to your group. And my biggest deal when those things come is to move on, like don't get too emotionally—you know, it's already a very intense situation. Don't bring more to it. And so be a more calming effect on people. And the only way you do that is to move on. But to go back to your question, I mean, Mensah is a very self-reflective person, and so he wants to be the best, and so it's easy to coach a guy that wants that because he wants to get better every week. And so there is no staying the same. And so you're either focusing on the little things you got to do to get better, and look, from last week to this week, to show you how coachable he is, I mean I made a huge emphasis on him making plays with his feet. A huge emphasis, and extend it. But what did he do? Went out there, and when it wasn't there, he made plays with his feet. Central Michigan, people play us a little bit different than they play other people. So you really can't tell going into games, like what exactly they're going to do. I mean Central Michigan dropped eight probably 80% of the night, right? They dropped eight four times before that. And so there was no way to tell what they were going to do. So a quarterback has to, especially in our system, has to burn his eyes on his reads and really go through the progression, and if it isn't there, man, you got to go make a play. You know, because I don't know if they're going to drop eight or bring six. That's up to them. And so we got to adjust at some point.
On competition pushing Miami’s offensive line depth and giving multiple players opportunities: Yeah, we feel like we have a handful of guys that can help us win, and it's all about who can help you win, right? And light the fire under other people. And that's just competition is great. It's the best motivator in the world. And so having a few of those guys roll through and really play well is great. And then you're going to keep seeing that. You're going to keep seeing multiple guys roll in, and the guys that we feel like they can help us win will be in the game. But it was great to see those guys get in there and play well.
On what made Darian Mensah’s accuracy and ball security stand out: You can tell through the course of his career that he's a winner, he's a competitor. But the biggest thing with him, with me, was I saw a kid that was extremely accurate. And that's what I look for number one. Like you have to be able to throw the ball accurately from the pocket. And you watch offenses out there that are struggling right now, and there's probably one common denominator, and it's really simple: they can't throw the ball as accurate as the offensive coordinator or head coach wants them or needs them to do. And when you can't, offensive football is really hard. You can run the greatest in the world, but if you can't throw it all, then they're just going to squeeze you out. So you have to be able to throw the ball accurately to make defenses play honestly. And when you can't, moving the football is extremely difficult. And that's the one thing I saw with him that piqued my interest the most. And he's an extremely accurate thrower of the football, and he takes care of the football. Those two things were the two most important.
On Chris Wheatley-Humphrey stepping up and Miami’s running back depth after CharMar Brown's injury: Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, Jordan [Lyle] and Chris has been the dude that, man, he doesn't complain. He works his tail off. He comes in here, and when he gets his opportunity, he usually does really well. And it's awesome to see a kid like that that works as hard as he does and stays focused and keeps his head down. It's good to see that kid get some playing time and do what he did. And yeah, we trust that kid to be in the game. And that room, I said at the beginning of the year, and thank God that we have a talented running back room because that room's— my job is not easy, and it's a very physical job. And, I hate it for Marty, and, he's an awesome kid. I went and saw him last week in the hospital, and man, that's not easy. But everybody is praying for him, loving him, rooting on him, and he's rooting us on. And, those guys are, in a way, playing a little bit more on an edge for him too. And so it's good to see those guys step up.
On how Darian Mensah prepares himself for another game and how he execute so well: Yeah, I mean, I think he does prepare himself, which is huge. I mean, he's up here all the time. He understands, when we go into the game, exactly what we want to do. He's very vocal, too, on what he likes, which I like that. I like guys that communicate to me, like, Hey, I like this, and I really, you know, don't like this, or at least prioritize it. I like this more than this, and so he's pretty vocal with things like that. But ultimately, his skill set's a good fit for what we do because he can sit in the pocket and he's very accurate. His eyes are always right. He burns his eyes on his reads and typically makes the right decision, and the ball comes out on time. I thought we did a really good job this game of extending when it wasn't there. That was a huge emphasis from two weeks ago into this week was just, man, sometimes people aren't going to be open, and sometimes the pocket isn't going to be perfect, and so, like when that happens, the play isn't over. We got to keep playing. In this game, he scrambled and ran a couple times, ran a touchdown, and then he extended a couple times and threw the ball downfield, which is a huge step for us offensively.
On how Darian keeps improving Every week: He brings the same energy and same intensity to every practice and every game. At this point, we depend on him to be Mali, and also, we also know that other people are going to step up and make plays too, which happened in that game, and that's going to happen through the rest of the year. I mean, the ball's going to find the people that are open and people are going to focus on him. We know that. We have to do a good job of hiding him and moving him around, which we do, but, he wears a jersey number and people are going to look at it and know where he's at. So, it is what it is.
On getting Cooper Barkate more involved: He was open. And that's typically—you guys think I'm crazy when I say that, but, he the first read on a lot of things. And so, but, there was certain situations where the touchdown, they didn't have a safety in the middle of the field. If they had a safety in the middle of the field, the ball wouldn't have went to him. I'm not psychic, so I don't know what they're playing. And so ultimately, you have to do your job every play because you don't know when the opportunity's going to come. And so I thought he played really, really well. He had a lot of opportunities at the beginning, and he's going to continue getting those opportunities. I was more frustrated than the week before because I know the player he is, And obviously in those specific situations where I'm watching film and, like, the ball should go to him, like, it just wasn't connecting in the second half of that game. And so that was the more frustrating. It wasn't about him specifically. It was about I wanted it for him. I want him to have those opportunities.
On preseason rankings: There should be no such thing as preseason rankings. That's the most ridiculous thing on the planet, and that is the stupidest thing, because people weigh those things way heavier than they should. You shouldn't have a ranking until October. How do you know? A&M's ranked in the top five. How does that look right now? I mean, there's multiple teams, and if anything is predictable of the future, it's the past. Go look at the top 10 last year. I did. Five of them weren't even in the top 25. So we sit here and look at schedules and we're like, and obviously everything's SEC, SEC. Well, look. Yeah, they have all their teams in the top 25. Guess what? Good for you. At the end of the year, half of them will be in the top 30. That's just the way it is. And so we can't sit here and look at, Hey, we play X number of top 25. We don't know that. We'll count those chips up at the end of the year, but that's why there shouldn't be rankings, because you give people talking points that are idiots that don't know what they're doing. Play the game. Play every week. It's like playing poker. Count the chips up at the end. You don't know at the beginning. The fact that we have preseason rankings is unbelievable to me, and the fact that people pay attention to them is more... it's unbelievable.
On watching Clemson's defense on film: They have probably a handful of first, second-round players, and when you look at the skill set of defenses, when they have that many NFL players, typically they're pretty good, right? And so the way I look at them is simple, man. They're hard to beat at their place. They're hard to beat in general. I don't know if they've gotten beat at their place a ton over the last decade. That place is tough to play. We know that, and they're getting better every week. I know everybody looks at the first game. Georgia beat them by a lot a few years ago too in the first game, and they went to the college playoffs. And so we know they're a good team. We know that they're well-coached. They have a lot of pride. We know a lot about those guys, and we expect their very best, which we get everybody's very best anyway in general, but we're looking forward to a great atmosphere and going up there and playing a great football team.
On grading Darian Mensah’s film and finding areas for improvement despite his elite numbers: Well, I mean, not hard, because there's always growth. You watch film, and, man, there's always something you can improve on. And I make this point to quarterbacks at the beginning of every year. I mean, one of the best—you know, everybody can argue about the greatest quarterback to ever play. I mean, Tom Brady's either the greatest or one of two, right? Or whatever, in the conversation. In my opinion, the greatest, but that's neither here nor there. That dude was working on something every year, and he was the best, right? And so if you don't think that you need to be working on something, then you're delusional. And so it's very easy to me because you can point out, like, I can point out—I mean, I got a play, the sack we took at the beginning, man, you got to get rid of the ball. You know, I mean, that's a D-tackle that looped around. That guy shouldn't sack you. You know what I mean? So it's easy to be critical because there's always going to be clips that, man, we can do better. And I'm the same way with myself. I mean, look, you mentioned the second half of that game. I mean, I've watched that probably 20 times. What should I have called? Why did I call this? I mean, ****, I go through every little thing. When a drive, that first drive of the game Saturday, I mean, I've watched that 10, 15, 20 times. I mean, why did we jump offsides when we hadn't jumped offsides all year? Not one, right? And so, sometimes there isn't a clear answer, but ultimately when those things happen, the biggest thing, especially after the first drive, because we didn't score on the first drive, but we scored on every one after that, really, but was just not make it a bigger problem. There is a little bit of, hey, settle down, like just play ball, right? And so I do believe that especially offensive football is played at a higher level when you're even-keeled, when you're not too high or too low, right? You want to be intense. You want to have an edge and all that, but if you get too worked up, it can kind of work against you on offense. There's a little bit of a tipping point there. So I felt like we were worked up in that game because we, as a staff, we had emphasized, starting strong, finishing, staying focused for every play and having every play its lifespan, and then we get out there and, man, we go backwards on the first drive. And that happens. You know, people that watch college football all around, every drive don't end up in a pretty picture score, you know. And so how you handle those drives and that adversity really is a testament to your group. And my biggest deal when those things come is to move on, like don't get too emotionally—you know, it's already a very intense situation. Don't bring more to it. And so be a more calming effect on people. And the only way you do that is to move on. But to go back to your question, I mean, Mensah is a very self-reflective person, and so he wants to be the best, and so it's easy to coach a guy that wants that because he wants to get better every week. And so there is no staying the same. And so you're either focusing on the little things you got to do to get better, and look, from last week to this week, to show you how coachable he is, I mean I made a huge emphasis on him making plays with his feet. A huge emphasis, and extend it. But what did he do? Went out there, and when it wasn't there, he made plays with his feet. Central Michigan, people play us a little bit different than they play other people. So you really can't tell going into games, like what exactly they're going to do. I mean Central Michigan dropped eight probably 80% of the night, right? They dropped eight four times before that. And so there was no way to tell what they were going to do. So a quarterback has to, especially in our system, has to burn his eyes on his reads and really go through the progression, and if it isn't there, man, you got to go make a play. You know, because I don't know if they're going to drop eight or bring six. That's up to them. And so we got to adjust at some point.
On competition pushing Miami’s offensive line depth and giving multiple players opportunities: Yeah, we feel like we have a handful of guys that can help us win, and it's all about who can help you win, right? And light the fire under other people. And that's just competition is great. It's the best motivator in the world. And so having a few of those guys roll through and really play well is great. And then you're going to keep seeing that. You're going to keep seeing multiple guys roll in, and the guys that we feel like they can help us win will be in the game. But it was great to see those guys get in there and play well.
On what made Darian Mensah’s accuracy and ball security stand out: You can tell through the course of his career that he's a winner, he's a competitor. But the biggest thing with him, with me, was I saw a kid that was extremely accurate. And that's what I look for number one. Like you have to be able to throw the ball accurately from the pocket. And you watch offenses out there that are struggling right now, and there's probably one common denominator, and it's really simple: they can't throw the ball as accurate as the offensive coordinator or head coach wants them or needs them to do. And when you can't, offensive football is really hard. You can run the greatest in the world, but if you can't throw it all, then they're just going to squeeze you out. So you have to be able to throw the ball accurately to make defenses play honestly. And when you can't, moving the football is extremely difficult. And that's the one thing I saw with him that piqued my interest the most. And he's an extremely accurate thrower of the football, and he takes care of the football. Those two things were the two most important.
On Chris Wheatley-Humphrey stepping up and Miami’s running back depth after CharMar Brown's injury: Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, Jordan [Lyle] and Chris has been the dude that, man, he doesn't complain. He works his tail off. He comes in here, and when he gets his opportunity, he usually does really well. And it's awesome to see a kid like that that works as hard as he does and stays focused and keeps his head down. It's good to see that kid get some playing time and do what he did. And yeah, we trust that kid to be in the game. And that room, I said at the beginning of the year, and thank God that we have a talented running back room because that room's— my job is not easy, and it's a very physical job. And, I hate it for Marty, and, he's an awesome kid. I went and saw him last week in the hospital, and man, that's not easy. But everybody is praying for him, loving him, rooting on him, and he's rooting us on. And, those guys are, in a way, playing a little bit more on an edge for him too. And so it's good to see those guys step up.
