Shannon Dawson is the New OC/QB Coach

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I'm ashamed to say I've never watched this before. I couldn't breathe.


Oh, very sorry about that...I always assume everyone knows all the old jokes and references.

Glad I could make you laugh with this oldie/goodie. I thought everyone knew Run-Run-Pass-Punt...

:ROFLMAO:
 
Exactly.

We had a bunch of CIS porsters trying to fake-hire Frost and Mullen and Ruggiero and every other dude who had every other reason to stay put (and/or who wasn't even really in consideration)...
People were saying Andy Reid in jest, but other people were getting to the same end point with less ridiculous sounding names.
 
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Really interesting nuggets from this 2020 article.

Dawson wanted to offer a scholarship to Bennett while he was at Southern Miss (the HC did not let him do it) and he was the main reason Mac Jones committed to Kentucky before flipping to Alabama when Dawson got fired.



Some key, relevant excerpts:

On Bennett...

“I always measure a kid’s hands when I see him in person. That’s kind of a strange thing maybe for some people, but to me, that’s one of the best traits you can have as a quarterback is big hands because that is the probably one of the biggest factors in accuracy. The bigger your hands are, typically, the more accurate you are just because you can control the ball better. The average NFL quarterback’s hands are probably nine and a quarter. Stetson had 10" hands."
...
The problem was Dawson’s head coach, Jay Hopson, controlled recruiting at Southern Miss and determined who got a scholarship offer and who didn’t. “I could never really get him to like him,” Dawson said. “He wanted a guy that can run power-read every play, which we never ran, but that’s what he wanted. We were just not on the same page with what kind of quarterback we wanted.
...
Bennett’s dad, Stetson III, said if Southern Miss had offered his son out of high school, he thinks Stet would be the Golden Eagles’ quarterback today. The Bennetts loved Shannon Dawson. “He was so full of energy,” Stetson Bennett III said. “You could just tell he’s a quarterback’s guy.” “Dawson kept swinging right up till the end. I knew he loves Georgia and I tried to talk him out of it...


On Mac Jones:

Dawson met Mac Jones when the Jacksonville quarterback was in the eighth grade. Dawson was blown away by what he saw in the kid’s arm. “His release was unbelievable,” Dawson said. “Mac always had a picture-perfect release. I told them that if this kid grows up and gets a little bit bigger, I think he could be a really, really high recruit. That kid can throw the football, but he was a little bitty ****.”
...

By the time Jones was a junior in high school, Dawson was the offensive coordinator at Kentucky. At the time, prospects could come up to campuses and have workouts. Jones showed up in Lexington with his mom and dad and threw for Dawson. “He absolutely killed it,” Dawson said. The Jones family stayed in Lexington that night and met with Dawson the following morning. Dawson hadn’t mentioned anything about an offer, and Jones had just left Wake Forest without an offer from the Demon Deacons. Dawson recalled going home that night and discussing the spindly quarterback with his wife. “I was like, I love the kid. But I just don’t know if he’s gonna be big enough to play in this league because he was real skinny. I said, ‘This is a this is a big boy league, not that all Division I isn’t, but you know how that league.’ But the good thing about my situation there was
(Kentucky head coach) Mark (Stoops) didn’t really care what kind of quarterback I took, he just wanted him to be rated high because he wanted to look good in recruiting. It wasn’t like Southern Miss where nobody else could make decisions.”

...


Jones didn’t commit to UK that day, but he did soon thereafter. That fall, the Wildcats struggled on offense, going 5-7. It wasn’t a good fit between Dawson’s Air-Raid roots and what Stoops wanted offensively. “He knew it and I knew it. I think (current UK offensive coordinator) Eddie Gran is a much better fit for what Mark wants to do offensively, and it’s all worked out the way it should,” Dawson said. They parted ways amicably. Dawson went on to Southern Miss from there. Jones later decommited from UK and committed to Alabama.

Jones’ father Gordon told The Athletic’s Andy Staples last week that Mac probably wouldn’t have flipped to Alabama from Kentucky had Dawson not been let go in December 2015.


Macro:

“I think coaches sometimes, especially recruiting quarterbacks, they overanalyze things,” Dawson said. “They want everything to be in this pretty little package, where it’s a no-brainer, and that’s just not the case. You got to see something in the kid that kind of triggers you, and to me, it’s all about accuracy. You look at all these quarterbacks that are five-star kids, and they don’t all work out. Typically, the reason they don’t work out is because they’re not accurate. Like you can have a strong arm, and you can be athletic. You can have all these things, but if you can’t throw the football accurately from point A to point B, you’re going to struggle as a quarterback. The fact of the matter is, if you can’t throw the football accurately, you can get all these quarterback gurus you want to help you, it just ain’t happening, brother."

“Your throwing motion has been ingrained into your body since you’ve been throwing rocks as a little kid, and you’re not changing that. You can change it in a drill, but once live action happens, you’re reverting back to what’s natural, and good luck. Stetson was extremely accurate. Mac was unbelievably accurate. They had great releases. I didn’t really care what the package look like around them. I just knew, this kid can throw the football accurately with a great release, and we can build around them. That’s the way I’ve always viewed recruiting the quarterback.”
 
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Feels like a “we missed on our first 10 guys so we scrambled at the last minute and found this guy” hire

Especially with how long this took compared to DC hire.
Idc if he did he got an Air raid guy that’s had great success. Rather this than a Mario type OC
 
Could have been way way way worse. If nothing else, Mario showed he is willing to go outside of getting fisical. As stated, this should maximizes TVDs talents which in turn will help recruiting. Pretty confident we will like what we see year 1, it’s what happens after that is the question.
 
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Just came back to say, good hire. Both coordinators are good, with the potential to be great.

It's about **** time. This O could be fun to watch, again. The D could cause some serious problems in the ACC. Our O versus our own D will really do each other good in practice. Our D really had its hands tied last year playing on Saturdays when they were facing our O all **** week in practice. Now, these two units have the potential to really strengthen each other. Iron sharpens iron. Last year it was pudding versus mud.

I think we could make immediate, major strides this year. We are not as untalented as our record would suggest. That is why I was so ****ed last year.

What I find funny is that Dawson's O last year didn't run as much, yet still averaged 13 yards more rushing per game than Gattis' sorry crap.

If TVD stays healthy, I expect a record breaking season for him. Do that and we'll have ourselves a fun season.
The Defensive hire/s are better than the OC Hire...
 
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