BREAKING: Evolving Dawson lands Miami OC Job after furious search process
Miami Hurricanes have linebackers coach on board: Derek Nicholson had plenty of success at prior stop … On300 top-10 QB Air Noland impressed by Miami Hurricanes new OC hire: “One of the best offensive coordinators in the country” … ANALYSIS: Deep dive inside the Shannon Dawson offense and how it can be utilized for the Miami Hurricanes
The Air Raid offense is coming to Miami. Or is it?
After an exhausting search that featured nearly a dozen known interviews and a lot of angst amongst the Miami fan base, Mario Cristobal hired his new offensive coordinator Sunday.
Houston Offensive Coordinator Shannon Dawson impressed everyone in the Miami building during a Friday interview with his Air Raid passing concepts and general offensive philosophy.
But there was a rub. Sources told CaneSport that Dawson also showed a side that is becoming a trend among Air Raid disciples. He showed more of a willingness to embrace greater balance and running the football too. Look for a Miami offense carefully crafted with Air Raid passing concepts but that does not forget the power run game that Mario Cristobal covets.
Dawson replaces Josh Gattis, who was let go after a woeful Miami attack in 2022 that ranked No. 86 in the nation in total offense (367.1 yards), No. 96 in rushing offense (128.1 yards), No. 60 in passing offense (239.0 yards) and No. 97 in scoring offense (23.6 points).
Now contrast that with what Dawson accomplished at Houston.
Dawson spent the last three season as the team’s offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, and this past season his offense was No. 25 in the nation in total yards (455.8) and No. 8 in passing offense (314.0 yards) along with tied for 16th in scoring offense (36.1 yards). The one area that wasn’t emphasized: The run game. The team had the No. 78 ranked rushing offense with 141.8 yards on the ground per game.
Also worthy of mention: His 2021 attack was No. 15 in the nation in scoring offense (35.9 points).
His scheme should be perfect for Tyler Van Dyke, with the one exception that you won’t likely see Van Dyke run the ball quite as much as Clayton Tune did at Houston. A lot of the Cougar run game was built on Tune’s skills with his feet. he had a team-high 128 carries out of 402 rushing attempts for a team-high 544 yards. Tune, by the way, also threw for 4,074 yards with 40 scoring passes in 13 games.
That’s right – 40 passing TDS. Miami had 18 last year with Gattis.
The Houston pass/run balance was skewed toward throwing the ball with 500 pass plays and 402 rushing attempts. That could be a little closer to 50-50 at Miami when the Alabama-style run-game concepts of Cristobal and line coach Alex Mirabal are incorporated.
But the Miami offensive line is young and a work in progress. It is not built yet for smash-mouth football. The strength of the offense is Van Dyke and what he can do with his arm and Dawson brings concepts that should be able to best exploit that.
So Van Dyke is probably pretty happy about this hire. As are Miami’s receivers, with the air raid using 4-5 receivers on the field at all times and focusing on throwing the ball vs. running it. At Miami, the wrinkle will be that tight ends make up one or two of those guys utilized in the passing game.
Dawson’s history?
He was the tight ends coach at Houston in 2019, and prior to that he served as the Southern Miss coordinator/WR coach from 2016-18. His final year at Southern Miss saw the Golden Eagles as the No. 3 team nationally in completion percentage, completing 69.2 percent of their passes.
Prior to that he was coordinator/QB coach at Kentucky for a year, and in 2013-14 he was coordinator/QB coach at West Virginia (in 2012 he was co-coordinator and WR coach there).
He helped build some of the nation’s most prolific offenses at West Virginia. In his last season in Morgantown, WVU ranked 12th in the nation in total offense, averaging 499.8 yards per game, and was ninth nationally in passing offense at 317 yards per contest. The Mountaineers averaged 33.5 points per game and set a school record by scoring at least 30 points in eight consecutive games. WVU also averaged more than 182 rushing yards per game.
Dawson got his start at Wingate as the WR coach in 2022, then had stops at Southeastern Louisiana (quality control/RB coach), New Mexico State (graduate assistant), Millsaps (coordinator in 2006 and 2007) and Stephen F. Austin from 2008-10 before heading to West Virginia.
He’s a disciple of Hal Mumme, who is one of the founders of the Air Raid offense.
In Dawson’s three seasons as quarterbacks coach (2020-22), the Cougars have combined to throw 87 touchdown passes (13th nationally) behind a 65.3 completion percentage (19th nationally) and 10,008 passing yards (21st nationally). Those are pretty solid numbers.
A native of Clinton, La., Dawson played his college football at Wingate (N.C.) University as a quarterback and wide receiver. He began his coaching career as receivers coach at his alma mater in 2002.
