BAD BOY MOWERS PINSTRIPE BOWL: RUTGERS VS MIAMI

December 18, 2023

Shannon Dawson

Yankee Stadium

Miami Hurricanes

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll wrap up here with offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson.

Q. We were just talking to Jalen, and he told us he is coming back for next year. I'm sure he told you a while ago. How big is it to have him coming back? Your left tackle, very versatile, very strong player to have him back for next year for a fifth season.

SHANNON DAWSON: It's huge. Those guys played great this year. I would like to keep as many of them back as we can.

But no, that's awesome. Great kid, and obviously excited about the future with him.

Q. I wanted to ask you and get your thoughts on how Jacurri is progressing. Obviously it's his first chance to play this year. How is practice going? How is the outlook for him?

SHANNON DAWSON: He's been great. His presence out there, sense of urgency. He is excited to play, and you can see. His body language is great however many practices we've had, I can't remember. It hasn't been a lot obviously because we're in the middle of finishing up recruiting and all the rest, but he is excited and ready to go.

I'm fired up for him.

Q. You talked about Jacurri, how he's doing. With him not having played this season -- I know I played a lot last season -- does that at all affect the play-calling? Does that take into account on simplifying things or whatever? I just wanted to know the basic philosophy.

SHANNON DAWSON: No, I try to do things that the quarterback that's playing is good at obviously. It's no different when other people were playing. You go through the process of putting the game plan together. There are some things that you try out, rep, and don't make the cut.

But right now the stuff that we're working on and the stuff that we're repping in practice, he's really doing an excellent job, and everything looks very smooth.

Just more of -- our offense is our offense obviously, but it's going to get tilted to who is playing, and you try to do things that their strengths are. There's obviously things we'll do with him that we won't do with other people, but for the most part 80% to 90% of what we do is what we do, and that's true with most offenses out there I would say.

Q. Also, how is his accuracy been? Sometimes he struggled with that in his intermediate and long throws.

SHANNON DAWSON: His accuracy has been fine. He's been sitting in the pocket throwing it great, processing and all the rest. We've obviously stressed that since I've been here at the beginning, and he's working and getting better every day.

Q. How do you compensate for the players who have -- there have been some players who have left: Colbie Young, some other ones. How do you compensate for those guys who have left? Does it feel like almost a new team kind of thing?

SHANNON DAWSON: I mean, next guy up. It's no different than if somebody gets hurt. Everybody is dealing with similar things right now, and it's not going to change because of the rules that are in place.

So bowl games are going to be what they are. I mean, it's the team of the year, and it's after everything goes down. So, I mean, you're practicing with some different guys and everything, but it's awesome because you get extra reps and extra work with guys that are going to be playing in the future. I see it as a positive.

Q. One more. Who is the backup quarterback for the bowl?

SHANNON DAWSON: Do you want to be backup quarterback?

Q. Sure.

SHANNON DAWSON: You can be it.

Q. Other than me.

SHANNON DAWSON: We're planning for a few guys, to be honest with you. We're going to have some emergency plans, and Jayden George is a guy that has been here for a while, and he's taken a lot of reps as far as what we do in practice and how we spread everybody out, but we're going to have some emergency plans too.

THE MODERATOR: All right, Shannon, thank you for taking the time.