Q&A: Meet new Kentucky OC Shannon Dawson
Kyle Tucker
@KyleTucker_CJ
Kentucky football's new offensive coordinator, former West Virginia OC Shannon Dawson, met with the media for the first time Wednesday to officially introduce himself to Wildcats fans. He's a good talker, and here are all of his first public words in Lexington:
SHANNON DAWSON
Opening statement: "Excited about this place obviously. I grew up in the south in Baton Rouge, want to beat those guys over there next time we play them in a few years, no doubt. Had an opportunity to play them at West Virginia the first year and almost beat them. Excited about being in this league. When this deal came up weeks ago when Coach Stoops contacted me – and I got contacted by a guy that I knew in a roundabout way was really close to Coach Stoops – he asked me if I would be interested in this job and extremely interested. It took about two or three days for me and Coach Stoops to sit down and it went fast. I was excited for it to go fast. So it's been great; the process has been great.
"Sitting down with Mr. Barnhart when we got here, letting him give me the overview of the facility upgrades and everything they're doing here increased my excitement even more. Awesome place; I've known about it obviously for my lifetime growing up in SEC country. Excited to get to know you guys and get to know our players a little more. I haven't been around those guys a lot. Just really excited to be here, want to open it up for you guys if you've got questions or anything. Not going to sit here and talk for 20-30 minutes. If you guys have got questions, y'all go ahead."
On how many of Hal Mumme's stories about his beginnings on his staff were true: "All of it. It really was. When I took the job there, being in coaching as long as I have now, there was some red flags. My dad played there, so anytime you can have somebody affiliated with the university, somewhat close like that, there's a red flag. But I had Coach Holgorsen on my side, too, because I played for him. He was talking to Hal on the other end and I don't think Hal matched it up necessarily at the beginning, so he did give me some jobs that were questionable. I love the guy to death. I can never repay him for some of the things he's done along the way for me. But he did at the beginning, he made it tough, which I think you should. You need to earn your stripes. You've gotta earn your place, especially in this profession, you need to go do things like that, it makes you more appreciative when you get to places like this."
On if he talked to Mumme about the job and what he had to say about it: "I talked to him afterwards. It went so fast to be honest with you from my moment of just talking to Coach Stoops and him flying in and that process went really fast and we wanted to keep it on the down low for those couple of days. After the fact, I talked to him, I was really talking to him more – you wrote that article, right? You wrote the article -- I was just more thanking him for the nice things he said about me because obviously there were some bad things he probably could've said, too. I talked to him after the fact, not before the fact."
On Air Raid philosophy: "The game has changed; the blueprint of the offense really hasn't, if you want to be completely honest. Are there some things we're doing different now that we didn't do before? Yes. But the blueprint of the offense and the mentality are still the same: We want to attack. But I do think defenses have changed over the years. They're a lot more athletic, a lot more physical. The players are getting bigger and stronger. So I think even if you talk to Coach Mumme about it, he'd tell you the game has changed. With that being said, I think the ability to get physical – we made a concerted effort to get physical and be able to run the ball more efficient – not that we're sitting there adding 100 more run plays into the offense.
"We still have those run plays, but it's simply the fact that we're calling them a little more, just turning and handing it a little more. So we're allowing those offensive linemen to be more physical, some leverage on leverage stuff, and it's weird because as probably as efficient as we've been throwing the football was when we made a concerted effort to be more physical in the run game. So you can be better throwing it if you run it a little better. So you have to evolve. The offensive football is going to continually to evolve, that's jus the way it is."
On if he called plays at West Virginia: "Well, this is the way it went down there. And I've been asked that question quite a number of times. The preparation through the week is extremely important, game planning. When we got to games and Coach (Dana) Holgorsen was the head coach, he was the final wherewithal in every decision we'd make. My job is this: Between every drive, when he clicked back on the offense (on the headset) I needed to have a plan for him. I'd have to say, look, 'This is the information we're getting. This is the way we need to attack.' Before every play, I would give him a suggestion. I've been around Dana for a long time and there's times that he went somewhere else -- the percentages of those times, I don't know, maybe 85 to 10 or 15 – I would say 85-90 percent of the time, we're on the exact same page.
"He needed suggestions because as a head coach he was pulled in a lot of different areas throughout the course of a week and throughout the course of a particular game. And so my communication with the quarterback after every series was important, and then my communication with the two guys I had working right to left of me up in the box, because they were charting the plays and the coverages and what we were doing tendency-wise, and so when he clicked back over after every defensive possession, I would have a laid-out plan for him how we want to attack the defense that particular drive. And after every play I would lay out a plan for him. So that was me and his relationship there, which good, bad or indifferent, I don't know what the answer would be. I would say that the six years prior to that it was all me, everywhere that I was before West Virginia, but at West Virginia, that four-year window that was our relationship."
On how attractive it was to get autonomy back: "Extremely important. It's why I took the job. Working for coach Stoops, being a defensive head coach, obviously the dynamics of me and his relationship is going to be different than the dynamics of me and coach Holgorsen's relationship. So being back on the field — I wasn't in the press box really until West Virginia, so being back on the field, having that flow of the game was extremely important to me and really the reason why I took it."
On his philosophy coaching QBs: "I think one thing, you gotta keep it simple enough to those guys are programmed the same way throughout the course of the year. The moment you sit there and start doing — there's a tipping point in offense and defense and everybody tries to figure out exactly where that tipping point is, where you're doing too much stuff, and so anytime you're doing too much stuff and their brain gets cluttered with too much information, that's when you become an average football player. So I think — I truly believe that having pre-snap and post-snap thought processes that are consistent with the blueprint of the offense, that really goes hand-in-hand week to week, and having things that change the window dressing and everything of the offense kind of makes it look more complicated to the outside eye, but keeping their programming consistent is extremely important. That way their thought process is on point every time and they can make clear, conscious decisions, good, bad or indifferent. But the biggest problem in playing quarterback is indecisiveness, not making the wrong decision. I want you to make a decision and we can live with the results and let's move on to the next play."
On how much of the Air Raid we'll see: "I'm going to tell you you're going to see the evolution of the Air Raid that I'm doing now. I would have to sit down with you and get your side of it. There were times throughout the course of years when we were throwing the ball probably 80 to 90 percent of the time. In my opinion if you want quarterbacks to stay on their own two feet and to stay healthy, good luck with that in today's football, because those D-lineman are rushing pretty fast. And so we're going to do some things that keep defense's honest and keep 'em off-balance. The biggest deal with what I talk about the evolution, and the term Air Raid gets thrown around so much, it's kind of like when I'd say 15 years ago when the 49ers were coming about this 'West Coast Offense.' You know, everybody was throwing around the term 'West Coast Offense,' then that term got watered down to where it was hard to even tell what it was. So I kind of think the Air Raid offense has gotten to that point to where, what really is it, what was it?
"Football evolves to the point where you're trying to attack a defense of where it is in today's game, and I think when you're trying to do that you better be physical to the point to where — the problems we had through the course of the years when we were just making a concerted effort to throw it the majority of the time was, when you're going to grind out a win at the end of the game, good luck doing it doing that. You better be able to sit there and get pad on pad with a stacked box and grind out a couple first downs to run the clock out if you're up by six or seven points. So I'm going to say the blueprint's probably very similar, and there's going to be times where if we feel good about the pass rush it might look extremely similar, and there's going to be times where if we don't feel good about it it might not look too similar. So, I don't know if that answered your question or not."
On what he knows about his personnel on Kentucky so far: "Not a lot to this point. Really it's been, I've been on campus just a few days and I'm going back out today, and so I haven't got an opportunity to evaluate the current players at all, and I want to keep an open mind about all of them. Everybody's going to have a chance to compete. There's obvious — experience is extremely important. Upperclassmen typically play better than lowerclassmen guys because they've had more experience, but we're going to be wide open with that. I'm going to have a clear mind and I'm going to sit down whenever recruiting ends and I'm going to sit down and I'm going to watch some things, because there's going to be a lot of carryover with terminology, carryover with the way we do things, and so I'll have a plan for that when we get done here in a couple three weeks or so."
On what his first conversations with Mark Stoops was like and what sold him on the job: "On the phone it was really gauging my interest. The first conversation we had was, 'Are you really interested in this job?" And I said, 'Yes. I'm 100 percent interested. Obviously there's some things we need to talk about.' Then after that conversation, I think we had a couple phone conversations that were my philosophy and stuff like that. It's like a lot of these questions I'm being asked today about, 'What are you going to do offensively?' I think one thing that he was excited about was we were physical, we had to the ability to be physical.
"So that evolution fired him up, and so whenever we sat down in person for the first time, which was probably a two, two and a half hour sit-down, it was a lot of – I don't know if it was a lot of strictly Xs and Os, but it was a lot of philosophy as far as how I meet with the quarterbacks, how I lay out a plan weekly with the quarterbacks, my overall approach to the whole unit, which I think is a little bit different as far as my mentality and how you motivate players, how you get those players to buy in. Just overall things like that: how you're going to control that side of the ball, how you're going to get them to buy in to you, how you're going to get them to buy into this system. Then we left there – and there were some Xs and Os being talked about throughout the course of deals – so we left there and I think within a day or two it was a done deal. We both felt good about it after that sit-down, I can tell you."
On which areas of the country he has recruiting connections and if he know where he will recruit for UK yet: "I don't know where I'm going to be recruiting here, but the first question I've recruited Texas, across the board from Texas to Louisiana to Mississippi junior colleges, Florida. When I was at West Virginia it was more of Ohio and we still dipped down into Mississippi junior colleges. There's a lot of carryover between my last job and this job as far as recruiting areas. I'm not saying we beat you guys a whole lot, but there was a lot of crossover. So, I don't know what I'm going to do here. I'm going to spot recruit at the beginning. I got to get to know these players, and I got to get to know this class and next year's class. It will probably be a lot more spot recruiting with some position coaches that are in place. As far as specific areas, I haven't had those communications with Coach Stoops and the recruiting coordinator yet."
On how clear Stoops was about wanting to run the ball in their meetings: "He didn't strictly tell me, 'Look, we better be able to run the ball,' but in his questioning to me and the way we went from two years ago to this year with our philosophy at West Virginia, put it this way, it fired him up. Just having the ability to be physical. Everybody loves seeing the ball in the air, there's no doubt about it, but the one thing I love more than doing that is seeing a W on the scoreboard at the end of the game. I think if we get those Ws on the scoreboard it don't matter really how we got to that point. But the blueprint of the deal has staying consistent within our offense. Just the emphasis on certain things have changed a little bit."
On how familiar he was with the offensive position coaches he inherited and if he had any prior relationships with those guys: "Some. I've know Tommy Mainord for a long time. Great guy. So I did have connections with him. The other guys, I just knew who they were. I didn't necessarily have a previous relationship with them. But I did know Tommy for a little while. Jimmy Brumbaugh, the defensive line coach, I've known him for five or six or seven years. So in the coaching profession, you typically know people, who they are, but specific relationship with them are few and far between. But I did have a couple on the staff that I was fairly close with."
On what he meant when he said he had a different philosophy in motivating players: "I just think you've got to have an overall – the level of having fun. I think that's a term that gets thrown around a lot but my dad is a motivational speaker so he's done a lot of speaking throughout the course of his life. So I think I bring an approach to it that I'm going to try to get you a little higher than you specifically think you can play. So, you've got to have a good mixture of loving them up and tearing them down. The same thing I said a while ago about the tipping point of doing too much on offense when you talked about it, I think it's the same way when you're motivating your players. Everybody is different. Everybody gets motivated differently.
"I wasn't necessarily a guy that got extremely motivated by you beating me down every time. I was the kind of kid if you told me what to do I was going to technically try to do it as hard as I could do it. You're going to have 10 percent of guys, or whatever, that need to be highly motivated. You need to stay on their tail. Then there's going to be a percentage of them that probably are going to do their job regardless. Pinpointing which of those kids are which one of those kids is extremely important, but I don't think you can motivate everybody the same exact way. Figure out where their button is and push it."
On what he most learned from his time with Dana Holgorsen aside from the scheme: "Aside from the scheme, if you look at what I was doing prior to West Virginia I think we fine-tuned weekly game plans as good as I've been around. So his mental approach to that and just the structure and layout to get to the final game-plan deal was as good as I've been around. So the weekly layout there and what we got to. I'm not saying it was exactly that year one, but we evolved in two ways. We did a good job with that and we did a good job with cutting things out rather than adding them in. Our overall package was extremely small at the end, and we got more efficient in ever area. So I don't think you necessarily have to have a whole lot. Just figure out what you're good at and do it."
On if he's had a chance to meet any of the players: "In passing, yesterday when I got to the complex, we had a team meeting. So in passing, I was getting introduced to – you could imagine how many players are walking by me. And it's going to be the same thing with you guys. I'm not great with faces and names for a little while. I try hard. It's going to take me a little while there. And obviously there are some guys I know exactly who they are, but there are some guys it's going to take me a while. So I'm going to work hard at that. Same way in this room. If I could get a piece of tape across y'all's forehead and you could write your name across it, that would be helpful."
On what makes him believe he can help UK win in the SEC: "Because I think I can be successful anywhere. Maybe I'm naïve to the point, but I've taken over a couple programs that didn't win any games the year before and we were close to winning national championships at both of those programs. So I believe that it's the mental approach you have. I look at our kids (and) I don't see – I see a bunch of kids who look the part. Now, I don't know how they play on the field, but I'm sitting there watching them in the team meeting room walk down and introduce themselves to me, and my job is to get those guys to buy in. I think if you buy in wholeheartedly as a group, then I think you can accomplish anything. The last time I checked, everybody can put 11 players on the field, right? And it's not like we didn't play anybody in y'all's league the past four years. We did. So, you know, I think you can be successful anywhere if you do it the right way."
On changing players' mindsets at other stops, to play faster: "I think you lay out a practice plan and you stick with it. The problem that a lot coaches make is they change too much. So our overall way we're going to practice and lay it out has been consistent over the years, and that's one thing that's been consistent from offense from 15 years down, the way we practice and the way we install. I just think you gotta program kids a certain way, and you gotta hold them accountable to it. Attention to detail is huge. So the moment you let one little thing slip, then that becomes two. If you want them to get lined up fast, guess what you gotta stress: You gotta get their ass lined up fast, period."
On recruiting against UK in recent years and if he noticed a perception change about the Cats: "No doubt. I think Coach Stoops over the past two years has done a phenomenal job of building a base of talent. Those kids are young. But overall, watching those guys recruit for the past two years, obviously social media is huge and their extent into social media and the way they target these kids has been off the chart. So I do think that's going to continue. And I'm going to learn a lot from those guys with that, too. So I do think they've built a base, a foundation for this program, that's going to continue to improve and continue getting better players."
On if he knows former Kentucky OC Neal Brown and if they talked at all: "I do. I didn't talk to him about players. I do know Neal, and I've known him for a number of years. We're kind of from the same umbrella of coaches. So I just talked to him about the place. When this deal came up, he was one of the first guys – in my conversation with Coach Stoops the first time – he was one of the few guys that I talked to, because I knew that he would keep it under the radar. He was doing the same thing at the new place he was at. I just talked to him about the people. And he said, 'You're going to love it.'
"He said, 'The people are off the charts.' He talked about their foundation that they've set. He said, 'It wasn't necessarily the same Year 1, and I had to manipulate some things,' but he said, 'As the years go, I feel like you'll be able to do whatever you want to do, because I think the level of talent is going to improve with those guys recruiting.' So I talked to him about the people – not as much the players – and about the opportunity. So it wasn't specifically pinpointed to, 'What do you think about this quarterback or this running back?' or whatever. It was, 'Look, this is a great place. You're going to love working for Coach Stoops. They got everything going in the right direction. Facility upgrades are off the chart.' Stuff like that."
On Stoops saying QB would be open like every position this spring: "Oh, yeah. We're going to compete. You're going to have to earn your stripes. You're going to have to earn the job. So we're going to give those guys opportunities to compete just like I've done everywhere I've been. And whoever is the most efficient guy and whoever is the best guy is going to get the job. That position is no different than every other position in my opinion."
On the last three weeks of his life: "Pretty sporadic. I've not slept in the same place too many times in a row. I got a 2-month-old little daughter, pushing 3 months old now. When I was single, it was a lot easier to make these moves and transitions. But being married now, with the little one, being away from her has been tough. So we (WVU) played in our bowl game; the moment we got home from the charter – we flew into Pittsburgh and it was probably 10:30, 11 o'clock – me and my wife drove to Lexington. Basically, we had to make sure we had (health) insurance starting January 1 rather than February, because we got a little one, and we had to find a house. Both things we got done within about four hours. I promise you this: The whole family will be here a couple days after signing day. We'll be ready to go. I'm not messing around with that."
On if that's all part of his up-tempo approach: "Yeah, exactly. Exactly."
* For instant updates on the Wildcats, follow me on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ. Email me at ktucker@courier-journal.com.