Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson and the Miami Hurricanes are now preparing for the Pittsburgh Panthers after the team was victorious this past weekend over the Florida State Seminoles 43-35 in double-overtime at Hard Rock Stadium.
Before we turn our attention to the Panthers, Dawson spoke to the media ahead of Saturday's game to recap the win over the Seminoles. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On his take after watching the game back: They're a good football team. It was tough conditions. They made some plays. We made some plays. I thought the first drive was excellent. We come out and we go score, and then we have we're backed up the majority of the first half and just didn't execute. We didn't play our best football for the most part of the game. We did enough to win, but we left a lot out there. And I know that sounds weird based on statistics you just threw out and it's very simple things, like very simple routine things that we're letting slip that will eventually cost us if we don't get it fixed. And it's our job to get it fixed. We didn't play a very clean game, and that's across the board. We did some good things, I get it, but in some critical situations, and I'm talking about backed up more than anything, because that's what sticks out to me. It's like we get out of that and put our team in better positions if we just execute simple football that we fail to execute in those particular situations, which eventually will bite you in the you-know-what. Now, as the game went, testament to our guys, we didn't panic, stayed the course, which is what we preach all the time, and at the end we pulled it out. But ultimately we have to execute better in the middle, and really in the second quarter or whatever. We started good and then it was just we had a little lull there, which it happens. That's why I said I wouldn't be in. I was just saying, like most games you don't score on every drive typically, right? It doesn't happen. I know people think it does, but they ought to watch other teams play too. But yeah, I mean, you're gonna have peaks and valleys, and then the good thing is when we had the valley, when we had the lull, we dug ourselves out of it. We got to end up doing something to get us out of it, and then we did. But I would like to execute better when we're backed up, like that.
On the Malachi Toney two-point conversation: Last year I think he threw it like eight times maybe. And so everybody knows he can throw it now. And so there's been times this year where we called a reverse pass, and they covered everybody. Everybody knows who Malachi Toney is at this point in his career. And so those things are probably gonna happen a little bit less because again, everybody knows who Malachi is at this point. And so hiding him is hard. They know his number. They watch film. And so finding ways to get wrinkles where it's like him doing other things is obviously something I think about all the time, but ultimately I also know that the execution of routine plays is what wins games, because that's the meat of the game. But ultimately that play, I had a good feel about that play just because of the structure of their defense, and I thought they would kind of attack him out of it, and I figured we would get one. There was no guarantee that that play was gonna work either. They could have covered it and then I'd look like a moron. So it worked.
On Malachi Toney continuing to produce despite facing double teams: He would have been that game if we wouldn't have got that one play called back, if you want to go back to that one. But that one still irritates me a little bit. It's like, it's our fault. I'm not blaming anything. We just got to execute and everybody's got to get set. And other people have to make plays. That's just the reality. And they look, if you look through the course of the game, Coop made some big plays, Daylyn made some big plays, Dre came in and made a huge play for us, Lofton's been making plays, stepping up. It's a team effort. It's surely not a one-man show. And so obviously the ball goes to him a good bit because he is a really good football player, and he typically gets open, and the quarterback trusts him. But other guys around him are doing a great job of stepping up too when time is needed. Do you trust him? Sometimes 100% dependable there?
On trusting Malachi Toney and not second-guessing play calls: There's times when they have the exact right... like talk about the Clemson game. We threw the ball to him on a crucial third and whatever, and they had the perfect coverage call and he still caught it. You can be result-oriented very easy. Like if you want to make your mind up based on things after the result, that's easy to do in our world, right? And you say, well, we shouldn't have did that. It's worked out a lot too. And so I don't view things like that. I don't have that luxury. I view things as in the time and place that exist, and if it doesn't work out, I move on. And I don't sit there and look at it and, like, dissect it in a way where, like, what if? What if? Did he do this? Look, we're all doing everything we can do to make these successful. Sometimes it's not gonna work. But when things don't work, you move on to the next play. Simple.
On Daylyn Upshaw: He wasn't feeling great in that game. He battled through some stuff. He's tough, and he came through at some crucial times. That third down catch over there on the scramble that was big time. We needed that at that point in the game. And so there were people that stepped up in crucial times that were desperately needed, but that's your job. That's everybody's job. What I would like is I would like to execute routine things a little bit better at times. We do at times, but there are specific times in that game that I'm thinking about that we just left a lot out there, across the board. Every position's guilty. You can look at receivers, you can look at running backs, you can look at O-line, and you fight hard not to be overly happy when you're watching film, and you're like, man, like, we won, but, we're not executing things that we need to be executing, and we're gonna fix that.
On one thing he loves about Darian Mensah and one thing he needs to work on: The best thing he does is take care of the football. Now, we threw a pick in that game, look, it happens, right? And that particular play, I mean, there's a lot of coaching points in that play. You could throw it out there a little bit more, you could run it, right? But ultimately, like, his decision-making, it's been pretty spot on, and the taking care of the ball. And I tell every quarterback this too. You want me to call the game aggressively? Then take care of the football, and I'll call it real aggressive if you take care of the football, and he does that. And so I trust that dude completely. Now, you were talking about one thing to work on. The only, like, when we get in trouble is, like, is when we get, like, in the pocket. There's some stuff that might happen that moves us and takes us off our progression at times. There was one particular play in the game I'm thinking about that, like, the second read, kind of what you were talking about, but the second read was open, but we kind of got a little bit moved off the pocket, in the pocket, but for no reason really. And so, and he's really, really good in the pocket, and there's probably a couple plays in the game that happened that, man, like when there's no reason to move, there's no reason to move, you know? Every quarterback's guilty of that. That's not being overly critical of him because, it's a hard job back there. You got big, talented guys running after you, twisting, and your eyes need to be down the field. You got to be calm in the pocket, but you got to move when you need to move, and you got to extend when you need to extend. So the job description's tough, we're critical of a lot of plays in the meeting room. Because ultimately we want to continue getting better, continue pressing the envelope, and so you can't do that if you're patting everybody on the *** all the time, surely.
On Jordan Lyle: I think he's making huge strides. I thought that game was big for him. He came in and did some great things, and you can see his talent. He looks good, he feels good, he's in a good mindset, and I continue to see him doing exactly what he did in more in that game. We talk about the running back position a ton, people got to step up, but that's a shared job. And every game, the flow, somebody's going to have a hot hand, and it might be a different person every time. It's our job as coaches, and Upshaw did a great job in that game. He just felt Mallory had a little extra, and he was probably right. In the Clemson game, Mark won the game, basically took the game. So it could be somebody different. And we're lucky in the sense that we have a very talented room that we can go to different guys and kind of share the abuse at that position, you get touched in a lot of different ways, if that makes sense to you? And so trying to share that's important.
On Pittsburgh defense: They're violent. If I had to explain them in one word, they're very sound. He's always been very sound and structured on defense, and they're very disciplined, and their D-line, they remind me a lot of what I go against every day on GreenTree. Their D-line gets after it. They strain. Their linebackers trigger. Their safeties are downhill. He mixes up coverages a good bit. I think he does a good job of probably not doing too much, but doing just enough to where they all kind of complement each other in coverage. And so, but the core of the defense up front is just, they're violent. The stats tell the tale. You ain't got to look too far away from that stat, right?
On how Darian and the receivers are connecting: That's a complicated question because defenses dictate that a lot. If I was going out there throwing passes on air, I can answer that question for you, and I'd be like, yeah, I mean, he need to do this and that, but, that's a complicated question in the sense of the structure of Florida State's defense in the back end. They play that middle guy. When are you going to get behind? We got behind them, really, the first drive. We got behind them, and he got hit. His arm got hit, and then from then on, that middle guy kind of stayed pretty deep because he knew, oh, ****, I just got beat. And so he pretty much stayed in the back, and so a lot of times in those kind of games, you have to be very efficient underneath and intermediate, and that's what you saw through the course of the game, is the ball was getting put in play underneath a lot, we tried some shots down the field, but they just wasn't there. And so when they weren't there, it's kind of like you were talking about, like, it's the quarterback's job to go to the next progression. And so when you talk about shots down the field, they got to be there, first of all, and when they're there, they typically, you know, are pretty accurate. Malachi caught one down the middle. Coop caught one on the sideline in two-minute, right? And it's probably not deep down the field, but it might be 20 yards or so, right? I want to stretch the field as much as possible, but I'm not going to do it to the detriment of our team.
On Coach Upshaw and Coach Viti: Man, they've been awesome. And I thought their position groups have really taken huge strides. You look at both of them, and I think the way they teach, the demeanor in which they teach, the calmness they bring to those rooms and the confidence they bring to those rooms, I think it goes without saying. You see the result on the field. Kids are playing confident. They're playing fast. And even little things you don't see, especially with the tight ends, they're really doing a heck of a job in the run game. They really are. They're doing a really good job blocking in the run game. And as far as running backs go, It's a very productive group, and it's probably the best we've been since I've been here at running the football at this point. And so we just need to continue on that and just continue trying to figure out ways to run the football better and better.
Before we turn our attention to the Panthers, Dawson spoke to the media ahead of Saturday's game to recap the win over the Seminoles. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On his take after watching the game back: They're a good football team. It was tough conditions. They made some plays. We made some plays. I thought the first drive was excellent. We come out and we go score, and then we have we're backed up the majority of the first half and just didn't execute. We didn't play our best football for the most part of the game. We did enough to win, but we left a lot out there. And I know that sounds weird based on statistics you just threw out and it's very simple things, like very simple routine things that we're letting slip that will eventually cost us if we don't get it fixed. And it's our job to get it fixed. We didn't play a very clean game, and that's across the board. We did some good things, I get it, but in some critical situations, and I'm talking about backed up more than anything, because that's what sticks out to me. It's like we get out of that and put our team in better positions if we just execute simple football that we fail to execute in those particular situations, which eventually will bite you in the you-know-what. Now, as the game went, testament to our guys, we didn't panic, stayed the course, which is what we preach all the time, and at the end we pulled it out. But ultimately we have to execute better in the middle, and really in the second quarter or whatever. We started good and then it was just we had a little lull there, which it happens. That's why I said I wouldn't be in. I was just saying, like most games you don't score on every drive typically, right? It doesn't happen. I know people think it does, but they ought to watch other teams play too. But yeah, I mean, you're gonna have peaks and valleys, and then the good thing is when we had the valley, when we had the lull, we dug ourselves out of it. We got to end up doing something to get us out of it, and then we did. But I would like to execute better when we're backed up, like that.
On the Malachi Toney two-point conversation: Last year I think he threw it like eight times maybe. And so everybody knows he can throw it now. And so there's been times this year where we called a reverse pass, and they covered everybody. Everybody knows who Malachi Toney is at this point in his career. And so those things are probably gonna happen a little bit less because again, everybody knows who Malachi is at this point. And so hiding him is hard. They know his number. They watch film. And so finding ways to get wrinkles where it's like him doing other things is obviously something I think about all the time, but ultimately I also know that the execution of routine plays is what wins games, because that's the meat of the game. But ultimately that play, I had a good feel about that play just because of the structure of their defense, and I thought they would kind of attack him out of it, and I figured we would get one. There was no guarantee that that play was gonna work either. They could have covered it and then I'd look like a moron. So it worked.
On Malachi Toney continuing to produce despite facing double teams: He would have been that game if we wouldn't have got that one play called back, if you want to go back to that one. But that one still irritates me a little bit. It's like, it's our fault. I'm not blaming anything. We just got to execute and everybody's got to get set. And other people have to make plays. That's just the reality. And they look, if you look through the course of the game, Coop made some big plays, Daylyn made some big plays, Dre came in and made a huge play for us, Lofton's been making plays, stepping up. It's a team effort. It's surely not a one-man show. And so obviously the ball goes to him a good bit because he is a really good football player, and he typically gets open, and the quarterback trusts him. But other guys around him are doing a great job of stepping up too when time is needed. Do you trust him? Sometimes 100% dependable there?
On trusting Malachi Toney and not second-guessing play calls: There's times when they have the exact right... like talk about the Clemson game. We threw the ball to him on a crucial third and whatever, and they had the perfect coverage call and he still caught it. You can be result-oriented very easy. Like if you want to make your mind up based on things after the result, that's easy to do in our world, right? And you say, well, we shouldn't have did that. It's worked out a lot too. And so I don't view things like that. I don't have that luxury. I view things as in the time and place that exist, and if it doesn't work out, I move on. And I don't sit there and look at it and, like, dissect it in a way where, like, what if? What if? Did he do this? Look, we're all doing everything we can do to make these successful. Sometimes it's not gonna work. But when things don't work, you move on to the next play. Simple.
On Daylyn Upshaw: He wasn't feeling great in that game. He battled through some stuff. He's tough, and he came through at some crucial times. That third down catch over there on the scramble that was big time. We needed that at that point in the game. And so there were people that stepped up in crucial times that were desperately needed, but that's your job. That's everybody's job. What I would like is I would like to execute routine things a little bit better at times. We do at times, but there are specific times in that game that I'm thinking about that we just left a lot out there, across the board. Every position's guilty. You can look at receivers, you can look at running backs, you can look at O-line, and you fight hard not to be overly happy when you're watching film, and you're like, man, like, we won, but, we're not executing things that we need to be executing, and we're gonna fix that.
On one thing he loves about Darian Mensah and one thing he needs to work on: The best thing he does is take care of the football. Now, we threw a pick in that game, look, it happens, right? And that particular play, I mean, there's a lot of coaching points in that play. You could throw it out there a little bit more, you could run it, right? But ultimately, like, his decision-making, it's been pretty spot on, and the taking care of the ball. And I tell every quarterback this too. You want me to call the game aggressively? Then take care of the football, and I'll call it real aggressive if you take care of the football, and he does that. And so I trust that dude completely. Now, you were talking about one thing to work on. The only, like, when we get in trouble is, like, is when we get, like, in the pocket. There's some stuff that might happen that moves us and takes us off our progression at times. There was one particular play in the game I'm thinking about that, like, the second read, kind of what you were talking about, but the second read was open, but we kind of got a little bit moved off the pocket, in the pocket, but for no reason really. And so, and he's really, really good in the pocket, and there's probably a couple plays in the game that happened that, man, like when there's no reason to move, there's no reason to move, you know? Every quarterback's guilty of that. That's not being overly critical of him because, it's a hard job back there. You got big, talented guys running after you, twisting, and your eyes need to be down the field. You got to be calm in the pocket, but you got to move when you need to move, and you got to extend when you need to extend. So the job description's tough, we're critical of a lot of plays in the meeting room. Because ultimately we want to continue getting better, continue pressing the envelope, and so you can't do that if you're patting everybody on the *** all the time, surely.
On Jordan Lyle: I think he's making huge strides. I thought that game was big for him. He came in and did some great things, and you can see his talent. He looks good, he feels good, he's in a good mindset, and I continue to see him doing exactly what he did in more in that game. We talk about the running back position a ton, people got to step up, but that's a shared job. And every game, the flow, somebody's going to have a hot hand, and it might be a different person every time. It's our job as coaches, and Upshaw did a great job in that game. He just felt Mallory had a little extra, and he was probably right. In the Clemson game, Mark won the game, basically took the game. So it could be somebody different. And we're lucky in the sense that we have a very talented room that we can go to different guys and kind of share the abuse at that position, you get touched in a lot of different ways, if that makes sense to you? And so trying to share that's important.
On Pittsburgh defense: They're violent. If I had to explain them in one word, they're very sound. He's always been very sound and structured on defense, and they're very disciplined, and their D-line, they remind me a lot of what I go against every day on GreenTree. Their D-line gets after it. They strain. Their linebackers trigger. Their safeties are downhill. He mixes up coverages a good bit. I think he does a good job of probably not doing too much, but doing just enough to where they all kind of complement each other in coverage. And so, but the core of the defense up front is just, they're violent. The stats tell the tale. You ain't got to look too far away from that stat, right?
On how Darian and the receivers are connecting: That's a complicated question because defenses dictate that a lot. If I was going out there throwing passes on air, I can answer that question for you, and I'd be like, yeah, I mean, he need to do this and that, but, that's a complicated question in the sense of the structure of Florida State's defense in the back end. They play that middle guy. When are you going to get behind? We got behind them, really, the first drive. We got behind them, and he got hit. His arm got hit, and then from then on, that middle guy kind of stayed pretty deep because he knew, oh, ****, I just got beat. And so he pretty much stayed in the back, and so a lot of times in those kind of games, you have to be very efficient underneath and intermediate, and that's what you saw through the course of the game, is the ball was getting put in play underneath a lot, we tried some shots down the field, but they just wasn't there. And so when they weren't there, it's kind of like you were talking about, like, it's the quarterback's job to go to the next progression. And so when you talk about shots down the field, they got to be there, first of all, and when they're there, they typically, you know, are pretty accurate. Malachi caught one down the middle. Coop caught one on the sideline in two-minute, right? And it's probably not deep down the field, but it might be 20 yards or so, right? I want to stretch the field as much as possible, but I'm not going to do it to the detriment of our team.
On Coach Upshaw and Coach Viti: Man, they've been awesome. And I thought their position groups have really taken huge strides. You look at both of them, and I think the way they teach, the demeanor in which they teach, the calmness they bring to those rooms and the confidence they bring to those rooms, I think it goes without saying. You see the result on the field. Kids are playing confident. They're playing fast. And even little things you don't see, especially with the tight ends, they're really doing a heck of a job in the run game. They really are. They're doing a really good job blocking in the run game. And as far as running backs go, It's a very productive group, and it's probably the best we've been since I've been here at running the football at this point. And so we just need to continue on that and just continue trying to figure out ways to run the football better and better.
