New offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson brings a new sense of optimism to a Miami offense that underachieved last season. Dawson spoke Monday at Miami's media day. Dawson helped former Houston quarterback Clayton Tune pass for over 4,000 yards last season.

On true freshman quarterback Emory Williams:

"He just has a ways to go in a sense of understanding everything, and that just takes reps. Reps over reps over reps is how you learn things. The more he plays football, the better he's going to be for sure."

On Tyler Van Dyke learning how to avoid contact after his injury in 2022:

"Look, injuries happen. It's a very, very physical game. Injuries happen. The process of getting over those injuries physically is one thing; the process of getting over them mentally is a whole other thing, right? And so, I think with the style of injury he has, I don't think it's necessary, like a torn ACL or something, right? There's probably a little bit more knowledge to him of what it's going to feel like when he really gets tackled. You don't get tackled at practice when you're a quarterback. So the first time he gets tackled is in the first week. We've done things in the offseason that I've never seen as far as how to fall, how to get tackled, how to get down, how to get out of bounds. Just teaching him ways to go down that aren't necessarily going down in the wrong way if that makes sense."

You're going to get hit. If you play quarterback, you're going to get hit. I never blame the O-Line on sacks. The quarterback's job is to get rid of the ball, for they get to you. When you are extending plays or when you are running with the football. Your job is to protect yourself. There's a growth process for quarterbacks to understand when to get down because; ultimately, you got to know when the journey's over. The end of that journey's different in every phase of the game. The more you move up, that journey ends quicker because people get to you quicker. To me, that's just a process, just knowing that look, I'm going to have to make some plays with my feet every now and again, and when I do, I need to get out of bounds or get down. Don't try to get the extra two yards; it's not worth getting hit over, right? So I don't necessarily know the hit that got him hurt or whatever. I'm just saying, in general, that's a quarterback's maturation process as far as, say hey, you got to conserve your body, big guys out there running around, you got to do your part to conserve your body. Can't necessarily blame that on somebody else."

On how he compares to other quarterbacks that Dawson has previously coached:

"I think everybody's different. There's similarities and differences of quarterbacks I've had through the years with Tyler. Honestly, I think him and [Clayton] Tune have some similar characteristics as far as how they are on a day-to-day basis. Their personalities are very similar. Their skill sets are very similar; both of them are natural throwers of the football. Tune is probably more athletic than people gave him credit to be, but I'm just saying Tune because he's the last guy I coached. I think every quarterback is different. It's my job to figure out what they're good at and figure out how they like to get coached too.

On what areas Van Dyke excels:

"I think Tyler is good at throwing the ball on time and accurate from the pocket, which is good."

On the talent level of the offense:

"I think we are talented enough. I was happy with the talent level when I got here, and we're adding more pieces as we go. That's never going to be an excuse, but we'll see how it goes when we start playing real football. But we got playmakers out there; we just got to do our job."

On maximizing the personnel of the offense:

"I think players play well when they are in an atmosphere where it's a relaxed atmosphere where they can just play ball. I do think that over the course of time in our offense, we've done a fairly decent job of what kids do well and putting them in those positions over and over again. I think that's probably the blueprint of our offense is to make sure guys are repping things they do well. It's not like pouring everything on every single receiver or every single person that plays out there. It's figuring out what you do well and moving you around and getting those spots and running those routes and repping them as much as we can and so I think the spring was big with that because obviously you bank a lot of reps in the spring and you figure out for instance who your option guy is, who your cross guy is, you figure out who your guys are and make them do it over and over again.

On being on the field versus up in the press box:

"I'll be down. I like to talk to the quarterback in between drives. There's two things, and I've been up and down, I've been down more than I've been up. I like communicating with the quarterback during the course of the drive. That way, if I want to change things, it gets changed instantly. There's a lot of our offense that changes at any point in time before the snap, not that we do that all the time, but it happens, right? Sometimes going through a third person sometimes slows things down. That's not the biggest reason; the biggest reason is in between drives I like to look in your eyes and have conversations with you. Sit down next to you and see your demeanor, see how you're doing, and have the next drive, and every drive it's own little life span. We sit over, talk about what happened, good, bad, or indifferent. Talk about what we're going to do. If we need to flush something bad, I can be more of a hey man, you got to get over it. Or if he makes the greatest play in the world, it's the same thing, you got to get over it. You got to play the next play. I just like that interpersonal contact that you get when you're on the sideline that you don't necessarily get from the box."

Talk with Miami fans on Canes Talk, Inside Canes Hoops, and Canes on the Diamond

• Subscribe to the Storm Tracker Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Spotify

• Subscribe to the Canes County YouTube Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @Canes_County, @BenjaminRivals, @TheCribSouthFLA, @AnthonyYero1, and @MichaelYero

• Follow us on Instagram: @Canes.County

Follow us on Facebook