Through two FBS games, Miami’s offense ranks third nationally in scoring defense (51.5 ppg) and first in yards per play (9.1). Shannon Dawson met with reporters to discuss the group’s progress:
On players like Cam Ward not caring about individual accomplishments: It bleeds into what we talked about last week. When bad things happen, you just keep playing ball. If you have that mentality, you block everything out. I'd be surprised if he even knew [about 15,000 career yards], to be quite honest with you. I was just in my office talking to him about certain things offensively. He's got blinders on. He thinks about the next play, thinks about the next game when that one's over with. Those guys that are resilient tend to not care about those things.
On Emory Williams: Emory's made tremendous strides. You think about what he went through last year with the injury. We didn't know when he was coming back. He worked his tail off and got back for spring. Being around Cam has probably been the most beneficial. Sitting and talking about how to read specific plays, especially verticals and stuff where there's some gray area in the play. Seeing space in a different way has probably been the most beneficial to him.
On the chemistry between the QBs: I think it's vital. From the first practice, from the first meeting, it is stated very clearly that you support whoever is in the game. Yeah, we're competitive. Everybody competes right to a point. And then when the starter’s named, that's the guy. We support him and whoever's in the game. It's easy with those guys because they like each other.
It's very organic with those guys. Their banter and interaction on a daily basis is comical most of the time, but you can tell those guys really respect and like each other. If you watch the game at the end, whenever people were making plays, our starters were on the sideline and they're the ones cheering the hardest. I think that’s key.
On USF: They're an extremely talented bunch. From their linebackers to their back end, they trigger harder than anybody we've played this year. They really get after it. They cause a lot of turnovers at very advantageous times because they put their hat on the ball. Ball security is of utmost importance every week. But you see it this week a little bit more because they knock the ball out a lot.
They fly around. Blocking those guys on the perimeter, we’ve got to strap it on and get ready because they will trigger. They're tough to handle up front. They rush the passer and hit the quarterback a lot. They get a lot of negative plays. They're very disruptive. It's gonna be a challenge.
On how he evaluates the OL play: They’ve done excellent. That's the competitive depth that everybody talks about wanting and not always having. Our OL room is extremely talented. Those guys step in and you really don't even notice it because they just do their job.
A lot of our rooms are like that. The running back room, I mean, good gracious, We’ve got guys getting carries at the end that looked really, really, really good. So the motivation factor in those rooms is high, which is what it should be. But the O-line, in my opinion, have been [excellent]. You should see the pockets that Cam's throwing from. It’s unbelievable.
On Francis Mauigoa: He's been pretty steady since I've been here. He’s one of those guys that the game's pretty slow for him. He’s no different than what I talked about with Emory. He came back from injury and really hasn’t missed a beat. He's as steady as it is on the edge.
On Chris Johnson: Speed is where it's at and he has a lot of it. We're just trying to find ways to get him involved.
One thing about him that's really neat is he’s a running back. He can do everything that we do at running back, so you put him in there and you call plays. He isn't a guy that we're trying to do certain things with. Obviously, he has a different skill set, but every play on the script is something he can execute. He's just in a situation where we have guys starting and playing that are older and are playing at a high level. Finding ways to get [Johnson] involved is crucial.
On finding room to improve after a dominant win: It's fairly easy to see where you could do better. It was a lot of yards. But Cam would be the first to tell you he left some meat on the bone. There were about three or four plays out there that he could have done better on. And every position is like that.
You're never going to play a squeaky clean, perfect game. But ultimately, there's always room for improvement. You better treat this week to week. If you don't, it's a very humbling game. If you're around enough and you think you’ve got things figured out, then just play one more week and see.
Ultimately, what happens last week has nothing to do with what's gonna happen Saturday. If we don't prepare the right way, then we're not gonna go out there and be successful. We better treat Monday like Monday and Tuesday like Tuesday, regardless of the result of the last week. If you're successful, what happened the last week can only hurt you.
On Jacoby George: He played really fast. I talked to those receivers all week about being hard to tackle. Playing fast has nothing to do with your actual speed. There's people that play fast that run 4.75. It's been proven over time. Straining your body, getting vertical, being hard to tackle is playing fast. And I thought he played extremely fast when the ball hit his hand. When the ball hit his hand, he got vertical.
Even the play he stepped out of bounds, he was shot out of a cannon. I thought he played really, really fast. And he is fast. So those two combined together are good.
On Ajay Allen’s performance: It should permeate the whole group. If things aren't working out for you, there's two ways you can go. You can have a victim mentality. It's easy in today's world, because everybody has it. My daughters are a prime example. I get on the one, and she was like, “Well, Baker did this.” Well, I ain't talking about Baker. I'm talking about you. Trying to scratch out that victim mentality with this generation is an everyday job.
So you take a kid like him. It's easy to get down and have a bad attitude because you're not getting what you need to get, supposedly. But you better be ready when your number’s called. He stayed positive. He works his tail off in practice. And then when his number was called, he played extremely well. To me, there's a lot of guys that can learn a lot of lessons from what he’s been through lately and what he did Saturday. I'm very proud of the performance he had, and his attitude that he's shown.
Ajay is very hard to tackle. He has a low center of gravity. And when he gets in the open field, he can go. He can turn it on.
On managing the running back rotation: We have a very talented room. So we're trying to get people involved, but we don't want to disrupt one person's ability to get going. There has to be a flow to it. Matt [Merritt] does a great job of having his finger on that flow.
I'll be honest with you, through the course of the game, I just trust him about the rotation of running backs. There's certain plays on the script or certain situations where I might ask for somebody. But ultimately, the starting of drives and the flow of it, he has a great handle on that. I just let him do what he does.
On how he feels about the scheme three games in: You go through camp and you have a pretty good feeling. But until you do it in games and you see what people are very comfortable doing, you don’t know. Cam’s a little bit unique because he can play the game and he sees things at a different rate. But, overall, after three games, we have a good feel for what we're good at. We haven’t even used five or 10% of what’s going to be used.
