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Dave Wilson
AS MIAMI PUNCTUATED a gritty 15-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to beat Ole Miss in the closing seconds of the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Hal Mumme sat on his couch in Shreveport, Louisiana, watching and celebrating like a proud father.
The Hurricanes have taken the hard way back to the mountaintop, beating Texas A&M in College Station, Ohio State — the defending national champs — in the Cotton Bowl and an Ole Miss team that was playing inspired football. Watching Carson Beck scramble into the end zone to beat Ole Miss and return The U to a national championship game for the first time in 23 years, all Mumme could think about was when he first saw Shannon Dawson’s moxie against the Arkansas-Monticello Boll Weevils.
Mumme, the 73-year-old inventor of the Air Raid offense, says Miami’s rough road has mirrored the path Dawson has taken to help get them there.
Malachi Toney.
«This is what we always wanted,» Mumme said. «None of us ever got the opportunity.»
But now, there’s another generation with a new chance. Mumme saw this taking shape at Strawberry Field against the Boll Weevils. And on Monday, against No. 1 Indiana, Dawson will take the field with the same offense, taught with the same drills he learned back on those Division III fields in Mississippi and Louisiana. And Mumme thinks we would be wise not to underestimate him.
«Shannon Dawson’s the salt of the earth,» Mumme said. «I would bet on him in anything.»
