Kentucky OC for one year. They absolutely hate him.
As I feel the spray painted beard forming over my face:
Dawnson’s history as OC (per NCAA stats):
2013-14 (WVU):
2013: Total O: 62nd / Scoring O: 79th
2014: Total O: 12th / Scoring O: T-34th
2015 (UK):
2015: Total O: 89th / Scoring O: 95th
2016-18 (So. Miss):
2016: Total O: 21st / Scoring O: 41st
2017: Total O: 43rd / Scoring O: 58th
2018: Total O: 99th / Scoring O: 89th
Houston (2020-22):
2020: Total O: 55th / Scoring O: 53rd
2021: Total O: 60th / Scoring O: 15th
2022: Total O: 25th / Scoring O: 16th
Here’s my concerns as I tend not to look at one yr stats vs. trends & tendencies:
In 10 yrs, Dawson has fielded two formidable offenses. I would say 3, but those 2016 stats are a bit misleading & troublesome. Dawson took over an offense under Chip Lindsey (u know, the guy many of us wanted) that was ranked as the 12th best offense & 13th best scoring offense in 2015. Immediately So. Moss became progressively worst under Dawson.
Sure, UK Football has never been a juggernaut for putting points up, but they immediately regretted the hire of Dawson b/c while they wanted Neal Brown’s head on a stake, they were like “hey big head, Whatchu doin?” after Dawson came on board. UK immediately became worst on O, when they were already bad w/ Brown (79th in Total O / 60th in Scoring O - 2014)
Here’s my biggest concern; remember that time when we were struggling mightily on Def in 2021 under Baker, & rumors circled that Manny Diaz, a former DC, had to step in & take control? My concerns is his best two stints as an OC, Holgorsen was the coach; u know, an offensive minded coach who’s a former OC. Without Holgorsen, he’s been ***.
So I’m not going to poor champagne just b/c he has air raid concepts; I’m going to wait to see has he evolved as an OC and is the real deal from 2022 OR is he a byproduct of Holgorsen.
Verdict:
Show me, first.
P.S - feel free to provide any further analytics throughout his entire OC career to provide further context.