2015 Football Roster
Roster
Lamar Dawson
- Height:
- 6-1
- Weight:
- 230
- Class:
- Redshirt Senior
- Hometown:
- Junction City, KY
- High School:
- Boyle County HS
CAREER: He has 137 tackles (7.5 for losses, with 2.5 sack), 4 deflections and 2 interceptions in his career. He has 20 career starts.
2015: Dawson, previously a starter for 3 seasons who has been sidelined the past year-and-a-half with a knee injury, will look to re-gain his starting role at inside linebacker as a senior in 2015.
2014: Dawson, who missed the last half of 2013 with an injury, hoped to regain his starting inside linebacker job as a senior in 2014, but instead redshirted while recovering from a 2013 knee injury. He sat out 2014 spring practice while recovering from that 2013 knee injury.
2013: Dawson started at linebacker for his third season as a junior in 2013 before suffering a mid-season left knee injury in practice that sidelined him the rest of the year. Overall in 2013 while starting USC's first 7 games (Hawaii, Washington State, Boston College, Utah State, Arizona State, Arizona, Notre Dame), he had 35 tackles, including 3.5 for losses of 12 yards (with 1.5 sacks for minus 9 yards), plus 2 deflections. He had 5 tackles at Hawaii, then 6 tackles, including 1.5 for losses (with 0.5 sack), against Washington State, a tackle and deflection against Boston College, 7 tackles (1 for a loss) against Utah State, 6 tackles and a deflection at Arizona State, 4 tackels against Arizona and 6 tackles with a sack at Notre Dame before his season-ending knee injury occurred in practice the following week.
2012: Dawson started for his second season at middle linebacker as a sophomore in 2012. Overall while appearing in 12 games (all but Hawaii, which he missed with an injury) and starting 9 of those games (all but Syracuse, Arizona and Georgia Tech), he had 77 tackles (fourth on USC), including 2 for losses of 5 yards, plus 2 interceptions, 2 deflections and a forced fumble.
After getting 1 tackle against Syracuse, he had a game-best 10 tackles at Stanford, then 9 tackles against California, 4 tackles (0.5 for a loss) at Utah, 4 tackles at Washington and 3 tackles, 1 forced fumble and 1 deflection against Colorado. He had 5 tackles (0.5 for a loss) at Arizona, a game-best 11 tackles (0.5 for a loss) with a deflection against Oregon and a team-high 11 tackles with an interception against Arizona State. He had 6 tackles at UCLA and added 10 tackles (0.5 for a loss) against Notre Dame. He had 3 tackles and returned an interception 22 yards against Georgia Tech.
2011: Dawson emerged as the starting middle linebacker for the last 4 games (Colorado, Washington, Oregon, UCLA) of his 2011 freshman season, his first year at USC. Overall in 2011 while appearing in 8 games (all but Minnesota, Arizona State, Arizona, California), he had 25 tackles, including 2 for losses (with 1 sack). He had 6 tackles against UCLA, 4 versus Stanford and Colorado, 3 against Washington (with a sack) and Oregon and 2 against Syracuse and Notre Dame. He sprained his ankle against Syracuse and missed the Arizona State, Arizona and California games. He made 2011 CollegeFootballNews.com Freshman All-American honorable mention. He became just the second Trojan letterman ever from Kentucky (joining LB Kurt Barber, who lettered 1988-91 after prepping at Paducah Tilghman High).
HIGH SCHOOL: His 2010 honors included Parade All-American, Super Prep All-American, Prep Star All-American, U.S. Army All-American, Max Preps All-American second team, Max Preps All-American Medium Schools first team, Rivals 100, Prep Star Dream Team, Super Prep All-Dixie, Prep Star All-Southeast, Gatorade Kentucky Player of the Year, AP Kentucky Mr. Football and Louisville Courier-Journal All-State as a senior linebacker, running back and tight end at Boyle County High in Danville (Ky.). He had 158 tackles, including 8 sacks, plus 4 interceptions (1 for a TD) and 3 forced fumbles on defense in 2010, plus ran for 686 yards with 15 TDs and caught 19 passes for 270 yards (14.2 avg.) with 1 TD on offense. Boyle County won the 2010 Kentucky state 4A championship.
As a junior in 2009, he made Max Preps All-American Medium Schools first team, Max Preps Junior All-American first team and Louisville Courier-Journal All-State while getting 176 tackles, including 23 for losses, plus 2 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles and 2 fumble recoveries. Boyle County won the 2009 Kentucky state 4A championship.
In his career, he made 502 tackles as Boyle County went 43-1 his last 3 years.
He also threw the shot put at Boyle County, with a best of 52-9.
PERSONAL: He is a sociology major at USC. Some of his artwork was displayed at the 2014 "Artletics" on-campus exhibit that featured the works of USC student-athletes.
| TAC | LS/YDS | DFL | FR | INT | YDS | AVG | TD | LG | |
| 2011 (Fr.)... | 25 | 2/4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2012 (So.)... | 74 | 2/5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2013 (Jr.)... | 35 | 3.5/12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| CAREER]... | 137 | 7.5/21 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 23 | 11.5 | 0 | 22 |
GAME-BY-GAME WITH LAMAR DAWSON
| 2013 | ||||
| TAC | LS/YDS | DF | FR | |
| Hawaii* | 5 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wash. St.* | 6 | 1.5/2 | 0 | 0 |
| Bost. Coll.* | 1 | 0/0 | 1 | 0 |
| Utah St.* | 7 | 1/2 | 0 | 0 |
| Arizona St.* | 6 | 0/0 | 1 | 0 |
| Arizona* | 4 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 |
| Notre Dame* | 6 | 1/3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2013 (Jr.)... | 35 | 3.5/12 | 2 | 0 |
| 2012 | |||||||||
| TAC | LS/YDS | DFL | FR | INT | YDS | AVG | TD | LG | |
| Syracuse | 1 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stanford* | 10 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| California* | 9 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Utah* | 4 | 0.5/1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Washington* | 4 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Colorado* | 3 | 0/0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Arizona | 5 | 0.5/1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oregon* | 11 | 0.5/2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Arizona St.* | 11 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| UCLA* | 6 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Notre Dame* | 10 | 0.5/1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ga. Tech (Sun) | 3 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 22 | 0 | 22 |
| 2012 (So.)... | 77 | 2/5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 23 | 11.5 | 0 | 22 |
2011 | |||||||||
| TAC | LS/YDS | DFL | FR | ||||||
| Utah | 1 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Syracuse | 2 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Notre Dame | 2 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Stanford | 4 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Colorado* | 4 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Washington* | 3 | 1/2 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Oregon* | 3 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| UCLA* | 6 | 1/2 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 2011 (Fr.)... | 25 | 2/4 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| *Starter | |||||||||
USC linebackers coach Peter Sirmon: "He's a very smart player. He's really calm. He's a big, rangy player. I think he's going to do some really good things for us, especially in the run game…He's real smooth in the box. I like the way he stays square on blocks, he's got good vision. He's a natural inside linebacker."
USC defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox: "His range is excellent. And when he gets his hands on a player, he gets them on the ground...He's a sharp kid. He picks things up quick."
