Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal is about to have a complete set of coordinators once again. Last week, he hired Lance Guidry to be his program’s defensive coordinator. Now, it’s being reported that Houston offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson is set to take the same role with the Hurricanes.
ESPN reports that Dawson is “set to be named” as Miami’s new offensive coordinator, replacing Josh Gattis — who was fired after just one season.
This is an interesting hire for Miami, especially considering Dawson’s coaching bloodline. He’s been Houston’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the past two seasons, coaching under Dana Holgorsen. With stints at Kentucky and Southern Mississippi in between, Dawson also coached with Holgorsen at Western Virginia from 2011 to 2014, where he started as a wide receivers coach before becoming Holgorsen’s offensive coordinator.
Holgorsen is one of the notable proponents of the “Air Raid” offense developed by coaches like Mike Leach, Hal Mumme and Sonny Dykes in the late 1980s. Dawson has plenty of experience with Holgorsen, but he also was an assistant coach under Mumme at Southeastern Louisiana in 2003 and at New Mexico State in 2005.
One imagines that the Air Raid — a high-flying, prolifically scoring offense — is in Dawson’s DNA as a coach, so it will be interesting to see if he ends up implementing that scheme at Miami.
Houston was fifth in all of college football in passing touchdowns last season with 40. The Cougars were also ranked eighth in passing yards per game with 314.0 and 16th in points per game with 36.1.
Under Gattis’ pro-style offense, Miami was ranked 80th in total passing touchdowns (18), 60th in passing yards per game (239.0), and 97th in scoring offense, scoring only 23.6 points per game.
The Hurricanes seem to be in-line dor a massive offensive boost under their new offensive coordinator.
