Houston‘s Shannon Dawson is set to be named Miami‘s offensive coordinator, sources confirmed to ESPN, completing coach Mario Cristobal’s coordinator hires.
Last week, the Hurricanes hired Lance Guidry to be their defensive coordinator after Kevin Steele left for Alabama.
Dawson has spent the past four seasons at Houston under Dana Holgorsen and was also with Holgorsen at West Virginia. Dawson was promoted to offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Houston in 2020 after spending the 2019 season as tight ends coach.
In other Miami coaching moves, Kevin Smith, who spent last season as the Hurricanes’ running backs coach, is returning to Ole Miss in the same position, sources told ESPN. Smith will reunite with Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, where Smith coached the Rebels’ running backs in 2020 and ’21 and helped recruit Quinshon Judkins, who led the SEC in rushing last season as a freshman.
Smith had followed Kiffin to Ole Miss from Florida Atlantic, where Smith was the Owls’ running backs coach from 2017 to ’19. While Smith was at FAU, Devin Singletary became the first running back in NCAA history to score 29 touchdowns in a season since Smith did it while playing at UCF, where he set 17 school rushing records. Smith is the fifth Miami assistant this offseason to leave or be fired.
In Dawson’s three seasons as Houston’s quarterbacks coach, the Cougars combined to throw 87 touchdown passes (13th nationally) with a 65.3 completion percentage (19th).
Houston quarterback Clayton Tune threw an AAC-record 40 touchdown passes last season. The Cougars averaged 36 points or more per game each of the past two seasons.
Dawson, 45, was the offensive coordinator at West Virginia for three seasons from 2012 to ’14, then the offensive coordinator at Kentucky for a season in 2015 and at Southern Miss for three seasons in 2016-18 before going to Houston. One of Dawson’s first coaching jobs was with Hal Mumme at Southeastern Louisiana.
Dawson replaces Josh Gattis, who was fired in January after just one season at Miami.
Sports Illustrated first reported Tuesday that Dawson was expected to be named Miami’s next offensive coordinator.