The ex-England hooker, 57, won the competition with Devon in 2004 as a player and as coach in 2007, and played in Cornwall's triumphant 1991 campaign.
Dawe has been Cornwall head coach since 2013, leading them to victories in the 2015 and 2016 Twickenham finals.
"It's a nice local game for me, but I'm travelling as a Cornishman," he said.
"I'm 100% behind Cornwall, there's no emotion at all."
The game will be played at Ivybridge on Saturday, with Cornwall favourites as they continue their pursuit of a hat-trick of County Championship titles against a Devon side who were only promoted to Division One because of a restructuring of the competition.
Devon head coach Dan Parkes played under Dawe at Plymouth Albion, and acknowledges his side are underdogs.
"It's going to be hard, the boys are going to be up against it," he told BBC Sport.
"For Graham the pressure is on, but I'm sure they'll get to their third final.
"The better we can do, the more likely we can attract players next year. Players play for Cornwall because they know they have a great chance of reaching Twickenham."

The men turned up at the pensioner's house in Carluke, South Lanarkshire, at about 12:30 on Wednesday, offering to carry out repair work at his home.
After agreeing to the work, the man paid the conmen in cash but they made off without carrying out any repairs.
One of the men was white, aged 50 to 59, about 6ft tall, of heavy build and spoke with a Scottish accent.
The other man was white, about 5ft 8in, and of slim build.
It is believed they may have used a small white van.
Det Insp Kevin Jamieson, of Police Scotland, said: "These people are the scourge of society who prey on the elderly or vulnerable for their own gains.
"My officers are currently reviewing CCTV footage and carrying out door-to-door inquiries to glean any information about these two men who are responsible for this despicable crime."
He asked anyone who had seen two men matching the descriptions, a white minivan or anyone who may have had the conmen knocking on their doors, to come forward with any information.
"I understand that victims find it difficult to come forward but these people are very expert conmen who can appear to be genuine tradespeople as they can talk in detail about repairs required to properties," Det Insp Jamieson said.
"I must urge people to be on their guard when answering the door to people purporting to be genuine workmen.
"To prey on vulnerable people and defraud them of significant sums of money is appalling and I will do everything to find those men responsible."

By the end of the day, the Dow Jones index fell 59.44 points or 0.29% to 20,591.86, while the S&P 500 was down 8.85 points or 0.38% at 2,344.93.
The tech-focused Nasdaq index dropped 30.61 points or 0.52% to 5,836.16.
Financial stocks did particularly badly ahead of results from Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan on Thursday.
The S&P 500 financials index slipped 0.9%, with Wells and Citi losing 1.92% and 0.88% respectively. JP Morgan gained 0.33%.
Shares in United Airlines continued to tumble as boss Oscar Munoz said he would not step down over the forcible removal of a passenger from a flight.
The stock ended 1.10% lower after losing 1% yesterday.
Graham Dawe says he has "no emotion" ahead of his Cornwall side's County Championship game at Devon, who he previously played for and coached.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
A 91-year-old man has been conned out of a four-figure sum of money by two bogus workmen.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Wall Street shares closed lower on Wednesday amid continuing concern at geopolitical tensions over Syria and North Korea.