Shannon Dawson’s offense is the best in the nation by numerous metrics, but he still sees areas where they can better. He met with reporters to discuss the offense, the Duke win and the Georgia Tech game:
On what can improve on offense: We had 3 three-and-outs on Saturday. There's always things on film that you can improve on, and all of them were self-inflicted wounds. We missed a throw. We dropped one. There's always things left out there. We had a huge lull in the second quarter. That's kind of glaring.
On Cam Ward: He always does things that kind of wow you at times. I like the routine plays. The stuff that he does, extending plays, obviously is excellent. We'll take that. Some of that stuff works out great. Some of it works out not so great. But I'm a big fan of routine plays. I really am. So I stress that probably more than anything. His ability to get the ball out quick is probably one of the better things that he does. He gets that ball out quick.
On adjusting the scheme to players like Cam Ward: You're going to try to do things that they're comfortable doing and that they do well. There were a lot of conversations when Cam got here about things he's done in the past, things we do, adding some stuff that he really liked. It wasn't extremely complicated.It was just stuff that we probably already had and really focusing on those things.
When you have a guy for one year, it's a little tougher. When you have a guy for two or three years, that's a little easier, because you get to know each other a lot more. But when you have a guy for one year, you have to speed it up. So spending a lot of time and having honest conversations at the beginning on the front end is vitally important. Cam's the kind of guy that is very forthcoming with what he likes. I appreciate that. You need to have a high belief in yourself and to know what you like. And so it's pretty easy with him
There is a tipping point in offensive football where you just do too much, where guys aren't good at anything, because it isn't just about one guy. Cam might be able to understand it and I might be able to understand it, but I’ve got to have those 10 other guys out there in the right place and executing it at the right time, too. So there is a tipping point of just amount of stuff that once you exceed that tipping point, problems can happen.
On the combination of Damien Martinez and Mark Fletcher: They're not banged up. They're fresh. They also support each other, which is huge. There would be huge issues if there was a different mentality with that group. There were multiple times in the game Saturday that both of them were in the game at the same time. That didn't happen by accident. Both of those guys are playing really well. Utilizing those guys in different ways is important.
But ultimately there's one ball. Every play that ball has got to go to one guy. The goal is to stay focused on the week and being a great teammate, to really be happy when somebody else makes a play. That's hard today, right? Because everybody wants theirs. But guys have really bought into that and I appreciate that.
On the Georgia Tech defense: They're very active. They're very athletic. Their subtle movements up front and the way the front, to middle, to back end fit together is pretty unique. They do an excellent job on third downs. Last week, Duke was first in the conference on third downs, and now this week, they're the first in the conference. So they're really good. If they get you in third-and-medium and third-and-long, they typically get you off the field. Our challenge this week is to be great on third down and really manage the game in a way where we don't really have third and longs, because their third down defense is challenging. It's really good.
On Isaiah Horton’s slants: He's a big-bodied guy with strong hands, and those guys typically are good at in-breaking routes. Overall, as a receiver group, we're pretty good at in-breaking routes, slant routes. He's really good at it because he's big and strong. He's a strong guy.
On Elija Lofton’s TD: We have the utmost trust in him. He's going to have an unbelievable career here. The kid's extremely talented. His attitude's off the charts. He's one of those guys that just is the same person every single day. To see that happen in a game is awesome, but he's going to have a lot of those moments in his career here. It just shows up every day with him.
He's in a very talented room. He knows that. But he gets a lot of plays and offense, special teams and everything. He’s doing a lot of good things. Everything that he's doing is pointing in the right direction.
In his mind, you know, he was going to score regardless. I just told him: make sure that we secure the handoff. And he said, “If you give me the ball then I'm going to score.” He’s a pretty confident dude. And I was very confident that he would get in.
On what can improve on offense: We had 3 three-and-outs on Saturday. There's always things on film that you can improve on, and all of them were self-inflicted wounds. We missed a throw. We dropped one. There's always things left out there. We had a huge lull in the second quarter. That's kind of glaring.
On Cam Ward: He always does things that kind of wow you at times. I like the routine plays. The stuff that he does, extending plays, obviously is excellent. We'll take that. Some of that stuff works out great. Some of it works out not so great. But I'm a big fan of routine plays. I really am. So I stress that probably more than anything. His ability to get the ball out quick is probably one of the better things that he does. He gets that ball out quick.
On adjusting the scheme to players like Cam Ward: You're going to try to do things that they're comfortable doing and that they do well. There were a lot of conversations when Cam got here about things he's done in the past, things we do, adding some stuff that he really liked. It wasn't extremely complicated.It was just stuff that we probably already had and really focusing on those things.
When you have a guy for one year, it's a little tougher. When you have a guy for two or three years, that's a little easier, because you get to know each other a lot more. But when you have a guy for one year, you have to speed it up. So spending a lot of time and having honest conversations at the beginning on the front end is vitally important. Cam's the kind of guy that is very forthcoming with what he likes. I appreciate that. You need to have a high belief in yourself and to know what you like. And so it's pretty easy with him
There is a tipping point in offensive football where you just do too much, where guys aren't good at anything, because it isn't just about one guy. Cam might be able to understand it and I might be able to understand it, but I’ve got to have those 10 other guys out there in the right place and executing it at the right time, too. So there is a tipping point of just amount of stuff that once you exceed that tipping point, problems can happen.
On the combination of Damien Martinez and Mark Fletcher: They're not banged up. They're fresh. They also support each other, which is huge. There would be huge issues if there was a different mentality with that group. There were multiple times in the game Saturday that both of them were in the game at the same time. That didn't happen by accident. Both of those guys are playing really well. Utilizing those guys in different ways is important.
But ultimately there's one ball. Every play that ball has got to go to one guy. The goal is to stay focused on the week and being a great teammate, to really be happy when somebody else makes a play. That's hard today, right? Because everybody wants theirs. But guys have really bought into that and I appreciate that.
On the Georgia Tech defense: They're very active. They're very athletic. Their subtle movements up front and the way the front, to middle, to back end fit together is pretty unique. They do an excellent job on third downs. Last week, Duke was first in the conference on third downs, and now this week, they're the first in the conference. So they're really good. If they get you in third-and-medium and third-and-long, they typically get you off the field. Our challenge this week is to be great on third down and really manage the game in a way where we don't really have third and longs, because their third down defense is challenging. It's really good.
On Isaiah Horton’s slants: He's a big-bodied guy with strong hands, and those guys typically are good at in-breaking routes. Overall, as a receiver group, we're pretty good at in-breaking routes, slant routes. He's really good at it because he's big and strong. He's a strong guy.
On Elija Lofton’s TD: We have the utmost trust in him. He's going to have an unbelievable career here. The kid's extremely talented. His attitude's off the charts. He's one of those guys that just is the same person every single day. To see that happen in a game is awesome, but he's going to have a lot of those moments in his career here. It just shows up every day with him.
He's in a very talented room. He knows that. But he gets a lot of plays and offense, special teams and everything. He’s doing a lot of good things. Everything that he's doing is pointing in the right direction.
In his mind, you know, he was going to score regardless. I just told him: make sure that we secure the handoff. And he said, “If you give me the ball then I'm going to score.” He’s a pretty confident dude. And I was very confident that he would get in.
