UM’s Dawson responds to those critical of running up gut. And play time changes
Hurricanes offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson on Monday clapped back at critics who have questioned why UM runs the ball up the middle so often, saying this whole line of questioning “doesn’t make sense.”
At one point, Dawson asked a local reporter to explain where he believes UM should be running the ball and asked several times if he understands the basis premises of runs out of the shotgun.
“I don’t understand the infatuation of how you get the ball outside with the running backs,” Dawson said. “I’m 100 percent good with the ball hitting the A or B gap. How do you want me to get outside the ball with the running back? Run option? I don’t obsess about that nearly as much as you [the media] do or our fans do.”
Dawson said that every other team that runs their offense primarily out of the shotgun has a similar run-game scheme and philosophy.
“When you say `running up the middle,’ when you’re in the shotgun and hand off outside zone it’s going to be a B gap or an A gap run 90 percent of the time with any team in the nation,” he said.
“The majority of what we do is inside zone run game. We do run outside zone about half the time. It depends on the game, structure of the other team’s defense … We are big, physical, strong people. We move people up front.”
Dawson said some outside zone runs end up going inside because defensive players, setting the edge, essentially force the running back to cut inside.
“It doesn’t matter what the run gap scheme is” when teams set their edges to re-direct the ball inside, he said. “With that being as it is, we ran outside zone half the time Saturday” against Stanford.
UM has run the ball 252 times this season and has averaged 4.3 per carry.
Per Pro Football Focus, 79 runs have gone directly up the middle, and those runs are averaging 4.1 per carry.
Also, 54 additional interior runs have gone between the guards and tackles and those are averaging 5.5 per carry.
UM’s outside runs are averaging 4.2 per carry, per PFF.
Receiver, cornerback news
The Hurricanes preach competition at every position and we’re seeing that manifest itself, in a very interesting and public way, at receiver and cornerback.
At receiver, UM is looking for a reliable third option behind Malachi Toney and CJ Daniels. Keelan Marion has received most of those No. 3 receiver opportunities, but the Canes took a fresh look at several others against Stanford.
Through the first six games, Jojo Trader had played just 10 offensive snaps, Joshua Moore 90 and Tony Johnson 60 – all far below Marion’s 246. (Trader was injured for a few of those games.)
Against Stanford, Johnson logged 27 snaps and caught three passes for 69 yards. (And this was not a case of Johnson playing only late in a blowout. He was impactful early in the game.)
Moore played 28 snaps and caught four passes for 38 yards.
And Trader played 22 snaps but wasn’t targeted.
Marion started for the seventh consecutive game and caught two passes for 18 yards, but played a bit less than usual (29 offensive snaps).
UM gave no offensive snaps to Ray Ray Joseph, who has played just 42 snaps all season and hasn’t appeared in a game since Week 3; Ny Carr (who has played nine snaps and hasn’t appeared since Week 2) or Chance Robinson (who’s injured) or freshman Daylyn Upshaw (who remains very much in the plans, Mario Cristobal noted after the game).
▪ At cornerback, OJ Frederique and slot cornerback Keionte Scott have started every game, but the starter opposite them has changed the past three games.
Xavier Lucas started the first five games but not the last two.
Damari Brown then started against Louisville.
And Ethan O’Connor got his first start against Stanford.
“Last week was his best week of practice,” defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman said of O’Connor. “We look at it [as if] we have four starters.”
Lucas has continued to play a lot, even while coming off the bench the past two weeks, and had his first interception of the season against Stanford. PFF rated him Miami’s best player on defense against the Cardinal.
In that game last week, O’Connor played 35 defensive snaps, Brown 25, Lucas 24 and Frederique just 12, for reasons that have not been explained.
This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 4:24 PM.
