Miami Football’s Shannon Dawson Measures Intangibles to Find Resilient Athletes
INTANGIBLES ARE HARD TO MEASURE YET CRITICAL TO AN ATHLETE’S SUCCESS
Shannon Dawson, the Offensive Coordinator of Miami’s top-ranked 2024-25 offense, knows that raw athletic talent is only part of the equation when evaluating an athlete. A recruit may have the speed, arm strength, or frame that turns heads, but what determines long-term success isn’t found in a highlight reel—it’s found in the intangibles.
Mentality Determines Athlete Performance
The difference between a good recruit and a great athlete often comes down to intangible traits like competitive drive, mental toughness, and the ability to handle adversity. Some athletes thrive when the pressure is on while others fold. Dawson wants to measure that ability to respond in the toughest moments—when stadiums roar, and social media takes aim.
“The intangibles are what we can’t measure and what we want to know the most about,” Dawson explains.
For years, college football programs have relied mostly on film, athletic testing, and in-person evaluations at games, practices, or camps to assess talent. Those methods will always be an important part of the athlete evaluation process, but Dawson has seen firsthand the benefits of taking a deeper look at an athlete’s mentality. A recruit may check every physical box and pass the eye test, but without considering their mindset and resilience, coaches are often making decisions based on incomplete information.
To make more informed recruiting decisions, Dawson and his staff now use data on the psychological and competitive traits that separate elite players from those who peak in high school.
Maximize ROI in Recruiting
For the larger football programs, recruiting is no longer just about finding talent—it’s about making the best possible investment. With NIL deals and valuable dollars on the line, every roster decision carries a financial weight. Some programs now spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes more, on individual athletes. Missing on a recruit isn’t just a lost opportunity—it’s a costly mistake.
“There is a huge part of the process that we’re missing right now. And Scorability is trying to fill that void. I appreciate what they’re doing,” Dawson says.
By evaluating both measurable and intangible attributes, Dawson and his team have greater confidence in their recruiting decisions and team investments.
Navigate Accelerated Timeframes
In today’s high-speed recruiting world, coaches need deep player insights at their fingertips. The days of lengthy, deliberate evaluations are over. The transfer portal, NIL deals, and accelerated signing periods have put the pressure on coaches to make assessments and roster decisions faster than ever. A process that once took months must now be made in days.
“I made a decision on a kid in a day,” Dawson says. “How do you make a decision on a kid in a day or two? Well, you gotta have something that gives you the information.”
Miami’s recent success proves why this approach matters. One of the program’s most decorated receivers didn’t fit the traditional mold—he wasn’t the fastest or the most physically imposing, but he possessed an unmatched competitive edge. Without a deeper evaluation of his mentality, the athlete might have been overlooked during the recruiting process. Dawson sees him as proof that the old scouting model of only considering the numbers doesn’t always get it right. Coaches need more.
Gain a Competitive Advantage
Leading companies have trusted data science for decades, using predictive analytics and mentality assessments to identify employees most likely to overachieve. If a Fortune 500 company relies on this data to hire the right salesperson who constantly exceeds quota, why wouldn’t a college coach use the same methodology to select the athlete most likely to thrive under pressure on the field when it matters most? College football, like most industries, resists change. Coaches have been making recruiting decisions the same way for decades, relying on instinct, tradition, and the status quo. Dawson sees this hesitation as a major competitive gap—one he doesn’t want to fall into when building his football roster.
“The human species is a herd mentality. We’re resistant to change. Even if we see it in front of our eyes and we know it’s the right thing, for whatever reason taking that leap of faith is hard,” Dawson says.
At the highest level, talent gets a player in the door. What happens after that is determined by something deeper—something harder to measure. Dawson has committed to understanding those intangible traits, doing his best to measure them, and building his team with the athlete’s most likely to overachieve relative to the expectations.
“Getting into Scorability was easy for me because I was looking for that missing margin of error,” he says. “I want to know that if I could go back in time, I would have recruited that kid who got to campus and blew us away.”