Shannon Dawson addresses if Miami's gameplan will change with Jacurri Brown at QB

Miami starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke has transferred out of the program, leaving Jacurri Brown to start the Hurricanes’ bowl game. This, naturally, is going to create a challenge for the Miami offense and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson.

As Dawson explained, it’s going to be important to put Brown in a position to succeed when gameplanning ahead of the bowl.

“I try to do things that the quarterback that’s playing is good at, obviously,” Shannon Dawson said. “It’s no different when other people are playing. You go through the process of putting the game plan together and there are some things that you try out, rep, and don’t make the cut.”

One good thing for Miami is that Jacurri Brown has a good amount of experience as the backup quarterback, in no small part because of injuries that Tyler Van Dyke has dealt with. However, none of that experience came in 2023, when Emory Williams was the one to step in and fill Van Dyke’s shoes until he himself was injured.

In eight games as a freshman in 2022, Brown completed 60 percent of passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for 221 yards. According to Dawson, he’s looking good in practice.

“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,” Dawson said. “So, 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 percent of what we do is what we do and that’s true with most offenses out there I would say.”

One concern about Brown has been his accuracy. However, even that was a concern that Dawson downplayed.

“His accuracy has been fine,” Dawson said. “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.”

Miami will play Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl on December 28th.

Assessing how Tyler Van Dyke will fit in at Wisconsin

Tyler Van Dyke has committed to transfer to Wisconsin. It’s an interesting fit for him and the Badgers as On3’s Andy Staples explained.

“This whole season wasn’t what Wisconsin hoped for. The offense wasn’t nearly as explosive as they wanted. I remember the Washington State game early in the season thinking if they had more speed on this team this offense would work. With the lineman they have and with the backs they have, they’re gonna run the ball pretty well. You saw when Phil Longo was the OC at North Carolina, when they had good backs and a decent offensive line, they ran the ball a lot but they also threw it very efficiently. Their receivers on the outside were just not particularly dynamic at Wisconsin,” Staples said.

“That’s something Luke Fickell and company have to take care of. Phil Longo and all the assistant coaches need to get on that and get that better. Tyler Van Dyke will come in pretty familiar with this offense. There will be concepts familiar to what he ran last year at Miami with Shannon Dawson as the OC.”