Almost fully recovered from his elbow injury from last season. Still that wasn’t the update. Everyone speculated and were almost certain that a UGA transfer Carson Beck lacked “chemistry” with the Miami offense that Cam Ward had. The consensus rejected that. As it feels almost natural given his first year, which is also his last. It’s a shame he doesn’t have the time luxury that Ward had. That’s where Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson stepped in on Wednesday, providing a surprise update during the Hurricanes’ preseason media day.

Dawson was clear-eyed in his assessment of Beck’s integration. “I think it’s very similar,” Dawson said, referring to Carson Beck and Ward. “Other than the fact that Carson hasn’t played yet here like in the spring, but he’s been in the summer and in the player-led stuff, he’s been taking reps all through the summer. And so I do think as this camp goes along—I mean, every offense has got to gel together, every offense has got to do a lot of similar things to be good.” That’s not empty coachspeak. In Dawson’s scheme—built off rhythm, quick decisions, and O-line trust—timing trumps talent.

And the backbone of the Miami Hurricanes offense, Dawson insists, gives QBs every reason to believe. “We’re as steady as you can be up front, which is really the key to our whole success. Even last year… one of the reasons that both those quarterbacks chose Miami was because of how we’re built up front. And so I think every quarterback wants to play behind a very good O-line. And look, we walk out there with some dudes. And so that’s very appealing to guys.”

It’s also why there’s real optimism Carson Beck can thrive despite the late ramp-up. The line features proven, physically mature starters, and in Dawson’s own words, “you have a lot of new faces on offense, but they are faces that are experienced at the college level.” That matters. The reps may be new, but the muscle memory isn’t. Dawson doubled down on the hidden value of age and repetitions: “You mentioned receiver, a bunch of new guys, but they have played at the college level.” Translation: these aren’t raw projects. They’re plug-and-play assets.

The WR room brings its own layer of volatility. Canes lost its top four producers in Xavier Restrepo, Jacolby George, Isaiah Horton, and Sam Brown. That’s leadership, third-down reliability, and an intimate understanding of Dawson’s system. The OC put it bluntly: “That room has a lot to prove.” Yet he wasn’t pessimistic. In fact, Dawson likes the look of the new group: “That’s a talented, deep room.” There’s Keelan Marion and CJ Daniels—all college-tested transfers. Young electric athletes like JoJo Trader, Ny Carr, and Ray-Ray Joseph who will need to fast-track their chemistry with their new QB1.

For Carson Beck, the signs of readiness began before he fully cleared the arm. While he was still recovering, he was already working. Not with a trainer—but with Dawson.“When we would have a break in practice, he would make comments like, ‘Hey, on Play 3, what if I would have did this or did that?’ And so his mind was always working on, ‘Hey, this is how I view football.’” That cerebral quality—paired with real SEC-level experience—is what separates Beck from the average late-cycle transfer.

The OC summed it up best: “He’s excited to play football, and I’m excited to see him play football. And I think a lot of people in this organization have built relationships with him over the past how-many-ever months, and everybody’s obviously rooting for him and just excited to put the helmet on and throw it around a little bit.” He will bring all of these smarts to the practice field for his first official practice since transferring, as he and the rest of the “Us” begin fall camp on Thursday.

Carson Beck’s crash course in Miami’s playbook was no spring break

Before he even picked up a football this spring, Carson Beck had already dived headfirst into Shannon Dawson’s offense with the focus of a passer who knows he’s got one shot at making this season count. He started the grind the moment he arrived on campus. And he wasn’t just studying film solo—he glued himself to offensive analyst Max Drisko and the OC like a rookie to a vet.

“When I got here in January, me and coach Drisko … would come out here and just walk through all the plays for every script,” Beck told Sun Sentinel. “We’re out here working, learning the whole entire offense. Literally the first week I got here, every single day for I think it was like, seven, eight, nine days in a row, we were meeting for an hour, two hours, just going over the entire offense, the installs (and) whatnot. But the thing that really helped me was just doing the walk-throughs. So by the time I got to spring football, when we started, I already knew the whole entire offense, essentially.”

That level of prep didn’t go unnoticed. Beck earned his teammates’ trust the old-school way—by knowing their routes, their spacing, and how to help them get open. WR coach Kevin Beard heard it firsthand from his guys: Beck wasn’t just calling plays; he was teaching, tweaking, elevating. It’s no wonder Dawson also sees a little Cam Ward in him. The two signal-callers like to have command of an offense and manage protections at the line.