Anthony Campanile – August 15, 2020
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Saturday, August 15, 2020
Linebackers coach Anthony Campanile
(With the amount of players you all have that can play off the ball as well as come down on the line of scrimmage, how do you and Outside Linebackers Coach Austin Clark balance that time on the field or in meetings – whatever it is – with a player like LB Kyle Van Noy, who has so many snaps both on and off the ball in his past?) – “I think that one of the awesome things about coaching here is we all coach defense. We all get an opportunity to coach our guys and I think it’s a staff full of guys who love to coach fundamentals and love coaching with each other. It’s something that as a group collectively, I think we all – at every position, to be honest with you – we all incorporate our own philosophies and get the opportunity to really coach all of the guys. It’s been an awesome experience that way.”
(I wanted to get your thoughts on what this opportunity means to you jumping from Michigan to the NFL?) – “It means the world to me. It’s been a tremendous opportunity. The opportunity to coach with (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores was something I was really excited about. It’s a storied franchise, so the opportunity to come here, coach for him, coach at this place and coach these players, it’s been a fantastic experience so far. It was something I was really, really looking forward to. I was really, really excited about it and I’ve loved every minute of it.”
(LB Kyle Van Noy has so many facets in terms of what he can do to his game. How much does he help this defense improve and how many roles can he fill?) – “I think Kyle, as you said, one of his great abilities is he got a lot of multiplicity to his game. I think him bringing that to our system, and we’re a system where I think Coach Flores has done an incredible job and Coach Boyer has done an incredible job in their careers of playing to the strengths of all of their players throughout their entire career. We’re obviously really, really excited to have him here, and I think he’s going to be a great addition to our defense and he’s a great fit to what we do.”
(College football obviously has no preseason games. So I’m wondering with you and a few other guys who have come over from the college ranks, are there some things you can do – increase competitive reps, simulate competitive situations, scrimmaging. Not a lot of people think about that. You have to be ready to go – Michigan vs. Alabama – first game on national TV. In the NFL, we’ve always have the preseason, so what are your thoughts on that?) – “I think for the guys coming from college, it’s not much of a difference, so that might be an advantage for us. A guy coming like myself as a coach, that’s all you know – getting the guys ready through training camp. I think Coach Flores has done a great job managing everything up to this point and really, really organizing in a way that our guys can get better every day. It’s been meticulously done. I think he’s done a fantastic job with that. Having been through some other situations like this as a college coach, I’ve been really, really impressed with that. I think through the summer, like you said, this is the same situation for everybody in the league, and we just have to do a great job of coaching our guys every day. Everything is important, every meeting is important, every practice is important, and I think our guys understand that. I know they do because they prepare that way. It’s a little bit of a change, I’m sure, for a lot of these guys as professional athletes with no preseason games; but they’ve really stepped up to the challenge and done a great job preparing.”
(What kind of boss is Head Coach Brian Flores and what are the things about him that make you confident that he’s going to be successful here?) – “I can tell you this for myself, one of the things I was most excited about coming here was – I had spent some time in Boston. I was at Boston College. Coach Flores was a Boston College graduate and was coaching in New England at the time. I knew a lot of people that knew him very well, and everybody spoke so highly of him, not just as a football coach, but as a person. For myself and for my family, to this point in the time that I’ve spent here, he’s been phenomenal to us. He’s just a great person in that regard. He cares about people’s family. Football is what we do. It’s a huge part of all of our lives, it’s a huge part of all of our families lives. He understands that but first and foremost, he understands that as a father and as a husband, that’s the most important job all of us have in the world. I think he does a great job of managing that for himself, with the staff and with the players. He never loses sight of that. That I think makes him a special guy in that regard.”
(What is your history with Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer and if you can share, what are your thoughts about what he’s going to bring to the defense this year?) – “Coach Boyer and I really got to know each other a little bit better through the interview process, to be honest with you. I felt a compatibility in getting the opportunity to speak together and talk about football together. The values that he has and what he believes is important about football – the way you play, the way to build a team, chemistry, toughness and character – those things are still really, really important in the game. I think guys that believe in those things have a lot of success. I felt that there was a common ground between the two of us, for lack of a better term. He’s a fiery guy. He’s a guy that’s going to get after you. He’s going to coach hard. I’ve learned a ton from being around him and the same I said about ‘Coach Flo,’ he’s a good guy. He cares about the right things and he’s going to coach guys hard every day. He’s going to coach the coaches hard and coach the players hard.”
(Is there a bit of a learning curve for yourself in getting to learn this defense and trying to teach it for the first time? And how do you think players like LB Jerome Baker and LB Raekwon McMillan and LB Kyle Van Noy, they’ve all played in this defense already. Do you think they are maybe a little bit of a step further ahead in knowing the scheme then maybe some other players on the team?) – “I think those guys have done a great job preparing. I think like any season, you’re going in, you start back at square one and you go through the spring, summer and right now obviously we’re in camp. Everybody gets re-acclimated to playing and learns the system. It gets installed the same way for everybody, but they’ve done a great job every day in the room of being engaged, like I said. Every meeting means something and they’ve prepared like professionals. They have been great in the meeting room like all of the other guys. I think they are doing a good job with that. In terms of myself, I kind of hit the ground running here. I think everybody – like I said, Coach Boyer did a great job explaining everything in the system. There was a lot of stuff that I came in and had a pretty good feel for, by the time I had already come in. I felt like honestly, it was a pretty good transition and it went seamlessly – for me, I can say at least. I’ve enjoyed it and I think the players have done a great job.”
