“I like what I see in spurts.”

August 20, 2026 - Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson met with the media on Wednesday. He shared his perspective on the offense’s progress and his expectations for the 2026 season.

On the progress of Miami’s offense in fall camp.…

“I mean, like probably everywhere in the nation right now, you’ve got good days and you’ve got bad. And we’ve had, obviously, some bad days. Our defense is really talented. But the good thing about it is if we have a day that we’re a little off, we typically bounce back and have a really good day. And, so, that’s kind of what you want to see right now is some back and forth with the two sides and that’s what you’re seeing. We’ll have a good day on offense, and then the defense comes out with some energy and some motivation. And we had a bad day the other day, and we came back and played well. So, good in spurts. Obviously, you’ve got to sustain it, right? We’ve got to sustain it, but I like what I see in spurts.”

On the offense’s potential explosiveness…

I’m excited about that. I mean, we’ve probably stretched the field “as much as I have. I’m excited about our ability to play fast and to be explosive. And I think, ultimately, that starts with running the ball effectively. I don’t think you can be explosive if you don’t run the ball well. And our running back room is very loaded and we’re going to lean on those guys like we’ve done really every year. At times, we’re going to ride those guys. But, with that, if you run the ball well, obviously, people have to play people down to stop the run. I think that’s when you get explosive. So, it’s got to be compatible in that sense. And we are. Now, you also have to have the guys that do it and we do. We have some speed. We have some length and... Darian Mensah throws a really good deep ball. He throws an elite deep ball. So, I feel good about stretching the field, but ultimately, I don’t want to waste plays either. So, there’s a fine line there of taking what you’ve got versus taking shots.”

On Darian Mensah’s assimilation into the offensive system…

“Well, I mean, the guy understands football. I mean, when you come into a place and you pick up the offense as quickly as he’s done, it’s a testament to him and his mentality and his makeup. His football IQ is really high … He’s very confident and very secure about himself and what he likes and what he doesn’t like. I like that from a quarterback. … He’s very confident in his approach and his football IQ is high, which I don’t know if you can play in this system if it isn’t, to be quite honest with you because there’s so many moving parts. There’s a lot of protection stuff, a lot of run game stuff, and a lot of movement. So, if you don’t have a high football IQ, it makes it tougher. Thank God that he does, so his capacity is really high.”

On the status of the offensive line…

“I would say we’re close, but we have a couple spots where, man, the guys are pretty close, you know what I mean? So, you might see multiple guys playing, obviously, but we’re going to keep that competition going. I think one of the best things [offensive line coach Alex] Mirabal does since I’ve been here with him is he moves a lot of people around. He gets a lot of people looks in practice that play in different positions. You might be the starting whatever, but you’re going to take a snap at guard and you’re going to be in there. So, there’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to our o-line and really settling on the best group is going to play itself out here in about a week, probably. We’re close, but we’ve got to still keep competing.”

On the tight ends…

“Man, we’re very athletic at that position. And those guys, I’ll say this, all of those guys are playing extremely physical because that position is a hard position. You’re an o-line[man] sometimes and you’re a receiver sometimes. You live in a lot of different worlds. So, what you want in that position, you want a guy to have great ball skills, to be able to be very athletic in route running so the ball finds him. But you’ve also got to be an elite blocker. Sometimes, that’s hard to find, right? Sometimes those guys aren’t shaped exactly for the size and everything that you want for one particular job for the other job. And, so, all those guys have the ability to make plays down the field, which I think is like the number one criteria. Now, blocking, to me … obviously, there’s technique involved, but it’s want-to. Do you want to block this guy? … If you want to block him, a lot of times, you’ll block him and [there’s] just a lot of want-to in that deal and I’ve been very impressed with those guys. I mean, I think we’re going to be very pleased with that position. [Tight ends coach Mike] Viti ‘s done a great job getting those guys where they are right now”.

On any changes to the offensive system with a new quarterback…

“It’s our job as coaches and we get paid to coach them to the system we run. Now, does the system morph around the players? Absolutely. That’s the same at every position. [At] quarterback specifically, [it’s] figuring out what he does well and how his mind works. And then obviously, the parts around him have to match that. So, I think right now, it’s a process of finding out what we do [well], and we have a pretty good idea with that. Now, are we polished yet? No, absolutely not. And I would venture to guess that nobody in America is right now. But ultimately, we do have a system here. We run a system which is probably different than other places. We’re not just sitting there calling plays. It’s a system that matches up and we have to get our guys good at that. Now, if there’s certain things that we like to do that we can’t do because of certain skill sets, then obviously, we’re going to shy away from doing that and do other things. And it’s going to look a little different every year. Obviously, this year’s going to look a little different based on the mentality of our group and what the quarterback likes and … how it fits around him. We have a lot of competition. I mean, we have a lot of good competition. We have a lot of good competition at a lot of positions, so that’s exciting to see.”

Miami opens their season on September 4 at Stanford. Kickoff is set for 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.

GO CANES!