March 11, 2025 • 22 mins
Jaguars' Defensive Coordinator Anthony Campanile sits down with Senior Writer John Oehser to discuss his first month on the job and how he's approaching the offseason. Campanile speaks on the new dynamic of the football leadership in Jacksonville and shares his fundamental beliefs for how the defense can experience sustained success.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Soon.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to the Ozone Podcast with Jaguars senior writer John Osher.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
All Right, welcome into this week's Ozone podcast. And I'm
I'm fired up about this because I've gotten a chance
to talk to Jaguars defensive quarter defensive coordinator Anthony. And
you say, the last name is I'm always blowing it Capella.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
That's that's Uh, that's the easiest thing.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I've gone camp and islet a different Absolutely, my last
name is Osier hs. So I've had all my life
all that first month in the books. Yeah, does it
seem like that long? And how's it going?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Uh, it's been going great. It feels like it's honestly
flying by. So yeah, I mean it doesn't seem like
that long. You know, the guys have been in here,
the staff been grinding.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It's been awesome.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
We got a great group of guys and just a
really team first atmosphere in the room.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It's been so much fun to this point, it really has.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Now when you say it's been a grind, I think
people know you're working. I don't think people know what
you're working on specifically. Take me through maybe an example
of a week, and then an example of a specific day,
what you're trying to get done to get prepared.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, I mean, your your normal work day at this
point in the season really is similar in a lot
of buildings, I would imagine, but it's usually the first
half of the day consist of evaluation or football basically,
however you.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Split it up of your own roster, y evaluate you.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, but really, I mean it kind of it depends
at what point in the off season you're at. So
for us, obviously when we first got here was evaluating
our own roster, and then kind of when you get
through that, it's hey man, you gotta start working through
the free agents, right, you know, you're really evaluating all
those guys, seeing who's a fit.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And a lot of time that's the afternoon, right.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, yeah, whether Yeah, So like the way it's set up, to.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Be honest with you, is the morning is usually for
us set up for evaluation, and then once we break
for lunch, when we get back in there.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
It's all football.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It's all installation, you know, in terms of our scheme,
and obviously with coaches coming from different places, it's being
the first year you spend a bunch of time on that.
You know, the verbiage offensive information, defensive information, and then
how you're calling everything on our end.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I'm fascinating when you're trying to evaluate a guy.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Obviously, come in, you look at Trayvon and walk You're like, okay,
I get it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
But as you go.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Through the roster overall, how many times do you feel
like you have to look at a player? Do you
come out of it and then have a conversation with
a position coach and just sort of let that marinate
a little bit and try to make sure you're both
seen it the same way.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yeah, you process, Yeah, absolutely, you discuss it as a staff,
you know, with the guys in the position room and
then myself and usually, to be honest with you, we're
all pretty close on that, sure, and you get a
lot of great feedback from the guys in the room.
We got a bunch of guys who have a lot
of years in the business and and you know, see
things and uh, the more you're collaborating with that, the
(03:11):
better I think. You know, guys at a certain point
may catch something that you look at and say, oh man,
there really is uh he really has a high end
ability in that area.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Now obvious question, but a much better idea I assume
of your roster, what you're working with than you had
a month ago when we talked for sure, do you
like it? Impressions overall? Are you tossing and turning right now?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Are we No?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I feel I feel really good about it.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
And really the number one thing is, you know, when
I came in here, I talked about and you and
I had actually talked about the most important thing being
play style.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And we got a lot of guys that play the
right way.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
You know, we got a lot of guys that they
strained to finish. There's great effort. So that's really what
you're looking for first and foremost. You know, you want smart, tough,
dependable guys that love to play. And we got a
bunch of guys that love to play football and are
great football players.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So I'm excited to start coaching them. Yeah. Fired up
about it now.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I asked you earlier and we laughed when I asked
you about scheme. This is a different environment, so I
got to ask you again about skiing because the defensive
coorn you always get to ask about scheme.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
If you were telling fans how you play in terms
of the old four three three four, whatever, if a
fan walks up to you in publics and says, how
do you play?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
What do you tell in terms of whether you're a
four to three or three four? Is that we're asking? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I think for us being multiple is really important and
having guys that have multiplicity to their game. That's something
I've always valued and everywhere I've been we valued that.
And I know I keep going back to this, but
you have to be adaptable, like so is that.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
To adapt to your own personnel or to combat what
offenses are doing or both?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think in a way yes, certainly.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Always there's the element of you got to adapt to
what the offense is doing, but you want to dictate
on defense as well, you know what I mean? And
if you can get different groupings out there that make
it hard for the offense to do certain things.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So it's about using your guy and what do your
guys do well? Right?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
And I think that the players really, more than anything,
drive the scheme and that's the best.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Way to go about, right what do they do well?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
And put them in situations where they can essentially take
over the game. Maybe that's not the right way to
say it, but be at their best, you know, And
what we're and what we're asking them to do.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I got you, what did you learn.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
You went to Green Bay last year one year and
sort of came in with the staff that was adjusting
and not rebuilding but reworking the defense. What did you
learn in that process that's helping you now?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I think what I learned, really, I would say reaffirmed
in that process was that obviously, you know, when you're
I've said this before, when you're tearing it down to
the studs and you're rebuilding it. So I kind of
just went through this process honestly and bringing back you know,
we just did this, and I thought Jeff Hafley did
(06:11):
an unbelievable job of really just listening to different ideas
from places where everybody's been.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And we have a.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Collaborative environment here as well, but we certainly know the
foundation of what we want to do from a coverage
perspective and a front perspective in terms of the way
we want to play, you know. And I think going
through that process with Jeff and the other coaches in
Green Bay was really really valuable because I learned that
(06:41):
on the front end, what you got to come out
of the OTAs with is guys being confident in the
techniques that you're asking them to play.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You know, that's probably number one for me, more than scheme.
More than scheme.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
You know, the scheme is gonna we'll obviously come through
over the course of the practices. You're going to get
to that obviously in different elements with in the scheme.
But guys understanding and knowing exactly what you're asking them
to do so that they can master that technique.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
That's the most important.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Thing, because you want them to the point where they're
not thinking as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Right, Yeah, to me, I mean you need to be
able to react.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I think players thinking sound bites, not sentences in the game.
You know, when you're playing football, Look the more words
it takes to describe something. In my opinion, that's what
you're trying.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
To avoid it, right.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I want to be clear, concise and direct, so for
the players when they're out there and they're playing, they
can think in a clear, distinct SoundBite that you've given
them to react fast. Right, That's the way your brain
fires in the game. It doesn't think in sentences. If
you're thinking out there in sentences as you're playing, you're
probably moving pretty slow.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You know, there's an old dadage in football.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
If you think you think you can have you know,
you can have great awareness, great situational awareness, right and
put guys in those situations, talk about those things in
the room so that they can react quickly out there
on the field.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I got you. Why are you ready now?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Where you maybe weren't five years Aget were you better?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Where am I better? In terms of being a coordinators? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I mean I'm sure you so.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I mean you'd have taken the job five years ago,
sure as a DC. But I'm sure you get the sense. Okay,
I'm ready now?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I think when you're around some of the great guys
have been around, and obviously being at this level now
for quite a while, that certainly makes you ready. You've
been around a bunch of different personalities. You've been around
a bunch of different great coaches who honestly contribute to
some of the philosophies that I'll bring here. And I
think that that has honestly seasoned me in a lot
(08:47):
of ways. And looking at it from every which angle
and coaching a whole lot of games and being involved
in a whole lot of game plans, I think anytime
you do that it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Only makes you better.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
But yeah, absolutely, I'm just from that perspective in terms
of being better and being more ready. I'm just so
fired up with the group of guys that we have,
you know, coming from where I've come from, Like I said,
working for some of the guys that I've worked for,
I got some things that I really feel so strongly about,
you know, to build the foundation of this that I
(09:19):
know is going to take us where we want to go.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I'd be remiss not to ask you about your family
and know it means a lot to you, and I
didn't realize until talking to our guy Dylan Morton talking
to some people from Jersey.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
You're a legend. You could have stayed in New Jersey
forever and been a high school because.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
No, I don't know about that. I don't know about that.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
My iou I got some family members or yeah, legends,
I'm kind of the I guess I'm the outcast.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I'm the guy that couldn't cut it in Jersey me.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
No, yeah, there's there's I just you know, maybe that
that is probably part of the answer to the last
question that you as as well, why are you ready?
Because I feel like I spent every weeking minute of
my life talking about football, studying football, and being around
people who love football and live football. And I mean
(10:14):
that when I talk about my family. You know, my
father still like that. He's eighty years old, he'll be
eighty this year. He's still coaching the freshman team for
my brother.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Your father was a head coach, he was legendary head coach.
In jury You played for him?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I sent I did?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I did? I played for him?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, obvious question.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But aside from everything, how did he influence you?
Speaker 4 (10:39):
He probably influenced me the most of anybody I've ever
been around, even in terms of football. Obviously he's my
Father's an incredible impact on me. But yeah, I think
he had a tremendous impact on a lot of people's lives.
You know, throughout sixty some ody years of coaching, you
know you're gonna come in contact with a lot of
people and hopefully positively affect a lot of people, which.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I know he did.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
But the number one thing that I took away from him, uh,
is that you know, like you gotta be tough and
everything you do every day of life, you know, life
ain't easy.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It ain't always going to go your way.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
You got to get up, You got to come in
here in the building every day with a passion that
that nobody can match.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
That's unrivaled, you know, in the world.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
And that's his mentality.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I mean, if you talked to him right now.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I talked to him, you know, last night on the
phone eleven o'clock, him in there and we're talking about
football and all kinds of stuff. He's still got that
fire about him. Yeah, he just lives that way. And
I think he raised all of us. I know he
raised all of us that way that you know, you
got to earn everything to get you got to pride
in your name and nobody's given you anything.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
You better be tough every day of your life.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
You know, we talked for something stood out when you
said the charge you get. The thing that means the
most to you is when you feel like you helped
a guy. Yeah, you helped a guy get the contract,
helped the guy better life. I'm assuming that that may
be the other side of your dad. Yeah, you know
there's the toughness, but I'm assuming you got some of
(12:08):
that from him. Yeah, And I guess what does that
part mean to you in terms of this job helping people.
That seems like it is at his.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Core for you.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Yeah, that's probably his greatest quality is that he sees
the best in everybody. You know, Like what I learned
from him, and I feel like has probably helped me
in coaching or anything. And raising my kids is the
greatest thing you could do in life for somebody is
believing them. And he has an unbelievable quality of believing
(12:42):
in people seeing uh, where a guy can seeing the
guy's best attributes, you know what I mean, And where
somebody says that the guy can't.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Do this, like I never heard him. Do you know?
There was no uh, there was there was no tolerating that.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
You know, even getting into coaching, he wasn't ever going
to listen to that the guy can't do this.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
The guy can. Yeah, like let me coach you. Yeah,
I think so. I think. I think that's the number
one thing, you know, when you're around guys.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Somebody asked me that what's the biggest difference having coached
in high school, college and the NFL, right, And I
maybe I get the wrong answer, but I said, I
don't think there is a big difference.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I think, yeah, I think it's the same.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
It's it's all we're all people like you know, you're
at your best when you're doing things for people you love.
If you have people that are emotionally invest in what
you're doing, if I'm emotionally invested in them, and they're
emotionally invested in everything we're trying to do here every day,
and that really only comes from what you see, not
what people say. You know what I mean, Like people
being around each other every day, you feel each other's energy,
(13:45):
you understand how hard people are working for each other
to get the best out of each other. Then it's real,
you know what I mean. Then there's there's obviously more
of an emotional investment from everybody, and I think.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And you can't fake that. That's just being here, being the.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Time, being ULTI you know, you got to be honest
because I don't think anything gets better without honesty. You know,
you can't lie to people because the last guy you're
going to fol last people you're gonna fool some players anyway,
I mean, we all know we're all in this business.
We know what it takes uh to be great at
what we do, and it takes a lot of hard work.
There's really only one way, So uh, I think to
(14:22):
answer your question, really being invested in people and loving
helping people and seeing guys succeed.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's my favorite thing about coaching.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I'll close this part of it with when I ask
you again about the style, because I love hearing you
talk about it. The basis of what you believe in
is it sounds like getting off blocks like that love does.
That's oversimplifying it, but you talk about that a lot.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yeah, I do, because to me, you want everybody to
do a little bit more. Obviously, carry out your job right,
So if I'm fitting my primary gap, and you know,
my job wants to whoop the man in front of me,
you know, put my eyes on him, get my focus there,
because that's where my power is to win, right there,
winning my primary gap, peak my primary gap, be violent
(15:11):
with my hands to create separation, and once the ball
hits the point and overturn, get back to the football.
And that comes from staying square and playing with fundamentals
and violently releasing off blocks, right, and never being satisfied
with yeah, well you know I got in my gap
and that's great, and like no, we want we want
more than that, we want strained from everybody. And the
(15:31):
reason why I say that is I think when you
look at a lot of the great defenses and a
lot of the great defensive plays and players, one of
the things that will show up is guys that don't
stay blocked. And why that's important is that limits big plays.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Okay, right, right.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
If everybody's you know, right in there and they're in
their gap and somebody gets carved out of a gap
or somebody gets reached out of a gap, okay, yeah, great,
it takes one guy to not do his job, you know,
and whatever, not do his job correctly that play, and
the ball can pop out of there if everybody's not
staying blocked, right, If I'm whooping him and you're whooping him,
(16:14):
and you know, now they're playing with nine guys, I
feel better about eleven nine to nine, you you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
And at the end of the day, if you can.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Keep the ball off of the secondary because guys are
doing a good job playing square in the front, you know, really,
in reference to the run game, you're going to have
an opportunity on the back end to play with a
little bit more depth to the defense, create overlap and
create takeaways.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
But that's where it starts, even though even in a
passing centric lea, that's where it starts, right, Disrupting the run,
being disruptive upfront, all that.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, trying to make people one dimensional.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
And I think at the end of the day, when
you stop the run, you have more at bats stopping
the pass or rushing the pass or I should say, right.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
So that's why that's a big part of it.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
But I think in this league people do a great
job and play action, and they're so many guys that
try and get separation between the second level and the
third level of the defense and throw those intermediate cuts,
whether the plants routes or drift routes, those deep digs,
and people make a living doing that in this league.
If you can do a great job stopping the run
and you can recognize play action, you know, doing a
(17:18):
good job with how you're teaching stuff during the week,
how guys can see things every week and everybody's seeing
it the same way. You could play with a little
bit more depth of defense, and again you're gonna limit
big plays. The whole thing to me is about limiting
big plays. Obviously in a run game in the past game,
but if you're giving up big plays in a run game.
Guys are gonna get a little bit more aggressive back there,
and you know it's sooner or later you're gonna start
(17:40):
giving up big.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Plays in the past game.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
See it all the time. Yeah, the last thing we do,
I call it the Ozone five. It's five quick fun questions.
What was your last binge watch?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Last binge watch?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And you can't say film?
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, man, you try to say film.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Philm nah Man. I'm trying to think about that.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
There was one point where, like, I never watched Game
of Thrones and then my wife made me watch that,
so I got that was a while back though. I
was binge watching that for a little bit. Uh yeah,
I never really watched TV, I know, I but uh yeah,
there's some movies like whatever they do, like Marathon one
of those things I'll watch that. I'll binge watch that.
It's some movies that I absolutely love. But uh yeah,
(18:25):
I'm not. I'm that's tough. I feel like I did
watch something else with my wife recently. Yeah, she's always
killing me that. I'm never into doing that watching the
show same thing.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, the last song you heard in the way in
this morning.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
This song I heard in the way in this morning.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I actually wasn't listening to the radio today, but the
last song I heard, Uh, shoot, I gotta think about that.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Man, that's a tough question.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I don't listen what do I go with?
Speaker 1 (18:53):
This is probably pretty stereotypical, But I got a playlist
a lot of old.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Uh, there's a lot of Sinatra in there, to be
honest with, Yeah, I listen to that. Dean Martin was
playing in our house all the time, so that that's uh,
I'm a big Dean Martin guy. But uh, yeah, yeah,
I know that's that's like an old squash. But there's
a lot of stuff I do listen to. But but yeah,
that's like, that's like the old playlist.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's out of the house on Sunday. So yeah, that's
on my card.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I'm sure the players can jive with that.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Best football memory?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Best football memory? Man, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
I mean, I think I got so many great football memories,
but I would say playing for my father in high
school is probably a tremendous memory of my entire you know,
high school experience, playing with him, playing for him, uh,
and then being around my brothers that way, I got
a lot of great memories growing up.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Watching them too. But yeah, obviously and.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Coaching, it's all been all been awesome. Man, you look
back at it, and I was thinking about that this morning.
You think about people and teams that you're on and
kind of takes you right back there, and uh, just
so appreciative so much of the time that I've spent in.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
This game, man, best sported than football.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Wrestling. Okay, yeah, without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
At tracks too.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I'm the last question I ask, is the person or
people who influenced you most. I'm gonna assume you're gonna
say your father, So tell me. I would think it
would be. They would have had to have been some
tough times playing for him, too. Just talk about that
experience overall, because that couldn't have been easy.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
No, No, I mean I think it was hard on
us and always. Uh you know, it's funny like even
you just mentioned that the other sports, Like I remember
wrestling when I was a kid. My dad was a
football coach, but like he cared as much or more
about wrestling because that was a one on one fight
with somebody every day, you know, And uh, you can't
(20:49):
blame anybody in the wrestling match. It ain't the right
guards fault. It ain't the defensive tackles fault. So, like,
I think it's a great way to grow up. And
he was, you know, always trying to put us in situations,
uh that way where you got to figure it out yourself.
You know, it's gonna take toughness, it's gonna take a
lot of effort and hard work. And uh, I think
(21:10):
we all, you know, myself, my brothers, my sister, we
all enjoyed doing that, doing the hard work.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
You know, do you think I should know it? But
how good a wrestler were you?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
No, I mean I would say it was a pretty
good wrestler. I loved wrestling.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
My little guy is wrestling right now and he's five,
so they got me started at that age. They got
him going right now, so he's uh, he's wrestling too.
And uh I loved wrestling. My brothers were all good
wrestlers too, so my uncle, uh, my uncle Richie.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Was a really good wrestler. So he was a huge
part of our life too.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
He played a He had a huge impact on me
also and coached me, coached all of us when we
were younger, so spent a lot of time around him
as a wrestler.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Too fantastic. I could talk football with you all day.
I really enjoy it. But thank you for the Ozone.
Thank you for doing the Ozone podcast, and I'll let
you get back to work.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Thank you, brother, appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
En
Soon.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to the Ozone Podcast with Jaguars senior writer John Osher.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
All Right, welcome into this week's Ozone podcast. And I'm
I'm fired up about this because I've gotten a chance
to talk to Jaguars defensive quarter defensive coordinator Anthony. And
you say, the last name is I'm always blowing it Capella.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
That's that's Uh, that's the easiest thing.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I've gone camp and islet a different Absolutely, my last
name is Osier hs. So I've had all my life
all that first month in the books. Yeah, does it
seem like that long? And how's it going?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Uh, it's been going great. It feels like it's honestly
flying by. So yeah, I mean it doesn't seem like
that long. You know, the guys have been in here,
the staff been grinding.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It's been awesome.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
We got a great group of guys and just a
really team first atmosphere in the room.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It's been so much fun to this point, it really has.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Now when you say it's been a grind, I think
people know you're working. I don't think people know what
you're working on specifically. Take me through maybe an example
of a week, and then an example of a specific day,
what you're trying to get done to get prepared.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, I mean, your your normal work day at this
point in the season really is similar in a lot
of buildings, I would imagine, but it's usually the first
half of the day consist of evaluation or football basically,
however you.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Split it up of your own roster, y evaluate you.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, but really, I mean it kind of it depends
at what point in the off season you're at. So
for us, obviously when we first got here was evaluating
our own roster, and then kind of when you get
through that, it's hey man, you gotta start working through
the free agents, right, you know, you're really evaluating all
those guys, seeing who's a fit.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And a lot of time that's the afternoon, right.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, yeah, whether Yeah, So like the way it's set up, to.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Be honest with you, is the morning is usually for
us set up for evaluation, and then once we break
for lunch, when we get back in there.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
It's all football.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It's all installation, you know, in terms of our scheme,
and obviously with coaches coming from different places, it's being
the first year you spend a bunch of time on that.
You know, the verbiage offensive information, defensive information, and then
how you're calling everything on our end.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I'm fascinating when you're trying to evaluate a guy.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Obviously, come in, you look at Trayvon and walk You're like, okay,
I get it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
But as you go.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Through the roster overall, how many times do you feel
like you have to look at a player? Do you
come out of it and then have a conversation with
a position coach and just sort of let that marinate
a little bit and try to make sure you're both
seen it the same way.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yeah, you process, Yeah, absolutely, you discuss it as a staff,
you know, with the guys in the position room and
then myself and usually, to be honest with you, we're
all pretty close on that, sure, and you get a
lot of great feedback from the guys in the room.
We got a bunch of guys who have a lot
of years in the business and and you know, see
things and uh, the more you're collaborating with that, the
(03:11):
better I think. You know, guys at a certain point
may catch something that you look at and say, oh man,
there really is uh he really has a high end
ability in that area.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Now obvious question, but a much better idea I assume
of your roster, what you're working with than you had
a month ago when we talked for sure, do you
like it? Impressions overall? Are you tossing and turning right now?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Are we No?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I feel I feel really good about it.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
And really the number one thing is, you know, when
I came in here, I talked about and you and
I had actually talked about the most important thing being
play style.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And we got a lot of guys that play the
right way.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
You know, we got a lot of guys that they
strained to finish. There's great effort. So that's really what
you're looking for first and foremost. You know, you want smart, tough,
dependable guys that love to play. And we got a
bunch of guys that love to play football and are
great football players.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So I'm excited to start coaching them. Yeah. Fired up
about it now.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I asked you earlier and we laughed when I asked
you about scheme. This is a different environment, so I
got to ask you again about skiing because the defensive
coorn you always get to ask about scheme.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
If you were telling fans how you play in terms
of the old four three three four, whatever, if a
fan walks up to you in publics and says, how
do you play?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
What do you tell in terms of whether you're a
four to three or three four? Is that we're asking? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I think for us being multiple is really important and
having guys that have multiplicity to their game. That's something
I've always valued and everywhere I've been we valued that.
And I know I keep going back to this, but
you have to be adaptable, like so is that.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
To adapt to your own personnel or to combat what
offenses are doing or both?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think in a way yes, certainly.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Always there's the element of you got to adapt to
what the offense is doing, but you want to dictate
on defense as well, you know what I mean? And
if you can get different groupings out there that make
it hard for the offense to do certain things.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So it's about using your guy and what do your
guys do well? Right?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
And I think that the players really, more than anything,
drive the scheme and that's the best.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Way to go about, right what do they do well?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
And put them in situations where they can essentially take
over the game. Maybe that's not the right way to
say it, but be at their best, you know, And
what we're and what we're asking them to do.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I got you, what did you learn.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
You went to Green Bay last year one year and
sort of came in with the staff that was adjusting
and not rebuilding but reworking the defense. What did you
learn in that process that's helping you now?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I think what I learned, really, I would say reaffirmed
in that process was that obviously, you know, when you're
I've said this before, when you're tearing it down to
the studs and you're rebuilding it. So I kind of
just went through this process honestly and bringing back you know,
we just did this, and I thought Jeff Hafley did
(06:11):
an unbelievable job of really just listening to different ideas
from places where everybody's been.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And we have a.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Collaborative environment here as well, but we certainly know the
foundation of what we want to do from a coverage
perspective and a front perspective in terms of the way
we want to play, you know. And I think going
through that process with Jeff and the other coaches in
Green Bay was really really valuable because I learned that
(06:41):
on the front end, what you got to come out
of the OTAs with is guys being confident in the
techniques that you're asking them to play.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You know, that's probably number one for me, more than scheme.
More than scheme.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
You know, the scheme is gonna we'll obviously come through
over the course of the practices. You're going to get
to that obviously in different elements with in the scheme.
But guys understanding and knowing exactly what you're asking them
to do so that they can master that technique.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
That's the most important.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Thing, because you want them to the point where they're
not thinking as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Right, Yeah, to me, I mean you need to be
able to react.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
I think players thinking sound bites, not sentences in the game.
You know, when you're playing football, Look the more words
it takes to describe something. In my opinion, that's what
you're trying.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
To avoid it, right.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I want to be clear, concise and direct, so for
the players when they're out there and they're playing, they
can think in a clear, distinct SoundBite that you've given
them to react fast. Right, That's the way your brain
fires in the game. It doesn't think in sentences. If
you're thinking out there in sentences as you're playing, you're
probably moving pretty slow.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You know, there's an old dadage in football.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
If you think you think you can have you know,
you can have great awareness, great situational awareness, right and
put guys in those situations, talk about those things in
the room so that they can react quickly out there
on the field.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I got you. Why are you ready now?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Where you maybe weren't five years Aget were you better?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Where am I better? In terms of being a coordinators? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I mean I'm sure you so.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I mean you'd have taken the job five years ago,
sure as a DC. But I'm sure you get the sense. Okay,
I'm ready now?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I think when you're around some of the great guys
have been around, and obviously being at this level now
for quite a while, that certainly makes you ready. You've
been around a bunch of different personalities. You've been around
a bunch of different great coaches who honestly contribute to
some of the philosophies that I'll bring here. And I
think that that has honestly seasoned me in a lot
(08:47):
of ways. And looking at it from every which angle
and coaching a whole lot of games and being involved
in a whole lot of game plans, I think anytime
you do that it.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Only makes you better.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
But yeah, absolutely, I'm just from that perspective in terms
of being better and being more ready. I'm just so
fired up with the group of guys that we have,
you know, coming from where I've come from, Like I said,
working for some of the guys that I've worked for,
I got some things that I really feel so strongly about,
you know, to build the foundation of this that I
(09:19):
know is going to take us where we want to go.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I'd be remiss not to ask you about your family
and know it means a lot to you, and I
didn't realize until talking to our guy Dylan Morton talking
to some people from Jersey.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
You're a legend. You could have stayed in New Jersey
forever and been a high school because.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
No, I don't know about that. I don't know about that.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
My iou I got some family members or yeah, legends,
I'm kind of the I guess I'm the outcast.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I'm the guy that couldn't cut it in Jersey me.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
No, yeah, there's there's I just you know, maybe that
that is probably part of the answer to the last
question that you as as well, why are you ready?
Because I feel like I spent every weeking minute of
my life talking about football, studying football, and being around
people who love football and live football. And I mean
(10:14):
that when I talk about my family. You know, my
father still like that. He's eighty years old, he'll be
eighty this year. He's still coaching the freshman team for
my brother.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Your father was a head coach, he was legendary head coach.
In jury You played for him?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I sent I did?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I did? I played for him?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, obvious question.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But aside from everything, how did he influence you?
Speaker 4 (10:39):
He probably influenced me the most of anybody I've ever
been around, even in terms of football. Obviously he's my
Father's an incredible impact on me. But yeah, I think
he had a tremendous impact on a lot of people's lives.
You know, throughout sixty some ody years of coaching, you
know you're gonna come in contact with a lot of
people and hopefully positively affect a lot of people, which.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I know he did.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
But the number one thing that I took away from him, uh,
is that you know, like you gotta be tough and
everything you do every day of life, you know, life
ain't easy.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It ain't always going to go your way.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
You got to get up, You got to come in
here in the building every day with a passion that
that nobody can match.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
That's unrivaled, you know, in the world.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
And that's his mentality.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I mean, if you talked to him right now.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
I talked to him, you know, last night on the
phone eleven o'clock, him in there and we're talking about
football and all kinds of stuff. He's still got that
fire about him. Yeah, he just lives that way. And
I think he raised all of us. I know he
raised all of us that way that you know, you
got to earn everything to get you got to pride
in your name and nobody's given you anything.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
You better be tough every day of your life.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
You know, we talked for something stood out when you
said the charge you get. The thing that means the
most to you is when you feel like you helped
a guy. Yeah, you helped a guy get the contract,
helped the guy better life. I'm assuming that that may
be the other side of your dad. Yeah, you know
there's the toughness, but I'm assuming you got some of
(12:08):
that from him. Yeah, And I guess what does that
part mean to you in terms of this job helping people.
That seems like it is at his.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Core for you.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Yeah, that's probably his greatest quality is that he sees
the best in everybody. You know, Like what I learned
from him, and I feel like has probably helped me
in coaching or anything. And raising my kids is the
greatest thing you could do in life for somebody is
believing them. And he has an unbelievable quality of believing
(12:42):
in people seeing uh, where a guy can seeing the
guy's best attributes, you know what I mean, And where
somebody says that the guy can't.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Do this, like I never heard him. Do you know?
There was no uh, there was there was no tolerating that.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
You know, even getting into coaching, he wasn't ever going
to listen to that the guy can't do this.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
The guy can. Yeah, like let me coach you. Yeah,
I think so. I think. I think that's the number
one thing, you know, when you're around guys.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Somebody asked me that what's the biggest difference having coached
in high school, college and the NFL, right, And I
maybe I get the wrong answer, but I said, I
don't think there is a big difference.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I think, yeah, I think it's the same.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
It's it's all we're all people like you know, you're
at your best when you're doing things for people you love.
If you have people that are emotionally invest in what
you're doing, if I'm emotionally invested in them, and they're
emotionally invested in everything we're trying to do here every day,
and that really only comes from what you see, not
what people say. You know what I mean, Like people
being around each other every day, you feel each other's energy,
(13:45):
you understand how hard people are working for each other
to get the best out of each other. Then it's real,
you know what I mean. Then there's there's obviously more
of an emotional investment from everybody, and I think.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And you can't fake that. That's just being here, being the.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Time, being ULTI you know, you got to be honest
because I don't think anything gets better without honesty. You know,
you can't lie to people because the last guy you're
going to fol last people you're gonna fool some players anyway,
I mean, we all know we're all in this business.
We know what it takes uh to be great at
what we do, and it takes a lot of hard work.
There's really only one way, So uh, I think to
(14:22):
answer your question, really being invested in people and loving
helping people and seeing guys succeed.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's my favorite thing about coaching.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I'll close this part of it with when I ask
you again about the style, because I love hearing you
talk about it. The basis of what you believe in
is it sounds like getting off blocks like that love does.
That's oversimplifying it, but you talk about that a lot.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yeah, I do, because to me, you want everybody to
do a little bit more. Obviously, carry out your job right,
So if I'm fitting my primary gap, and you know,
my job wants to whoop the man in front of me,
you know, put my eyes on him, get my focus there,
because that's where my power is to win, right there,
winning my primary gap, peak my primary gap, be violent
(15:11):
with my hands to create separation, and once the ball
hits the point and overturn, get back to the football.
And that comes from staying square and playing with fundamentals
and violently releasing off blocks, right, and never being satisfied
with yeah, well you know I got in my gap
and that's great, and like no, we want we want
more than that, we want strained from everybody. And the
(15:31):
reason why I say that is I think when you
look at a lot of the great defenses and a
lot of the great defensive plays and players, one of
the things that will show up is guys that don't
stay blocked. And why that's important is that limits big plays.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Okay, right, right.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
If everybody's you know, right in there and they're in
their gap and somebody gets carved out of a gap
or somebody gets reached out of a gap, okay, yeah, great,
it takes one guy to not do his job, you know,
and whatever, not do his job correctly that play, and
the ball can pop out of there if everybody's not
staying blocked, right, If I'm whooping him and you're whooping him,
(16:14):
and you know, now they're playing with nine guys, I
feel better about eleven nine to nine, you you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
And at the end of the day, if you can.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Keep the ball off of the secondary because guys are
doing a good job playing square in the front, you know, really,
in reference to the run game, you're going to have
an opportunity on the back end to play with a
little bit more depth to the defense, create overlap and
create takeaways.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
But that's where it starts, even though even in a
passing centric lea, that's where it starts, right, Disrupting the run,
being disruptive upfront, all that.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, trying to make people one dimensional.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
And I think at the end of the day, when
you stop the run, you have more at bats stopping
the pass or rushing the pass or I should say, right.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
So that's why that's a big part of it.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
But I think in this league people do a great
job and play action, and they're so many guys that
try and get separation between the second level and the
third level of the defense and throw those intermediate cuts,
whether the plants routes or drift routes, those deep digs,
and people make a living doing that in this league.
If you can do a great job stopping the run
and you can recognize play action, you know, doing a
(17:18):
good job with how you're teaching stuff during the week,
how guys can see things every week and everybody's seeing
it the same way. You could play with a little
bit more depth of defense, and again you're gonna limit
big plays. The whole thing to me is about limiting
big plays. Obviously in a run game in the past game,
but if you're giving up big plays in a run game.
Guys are gonna get a little bit more aggressive back there,
and you know it's sooner or later you're gonna start
(17:40):
giving up big.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Plays in the past game.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
See it all the time. Yeah, the last thing we do,
I call it the Ozone five. It's five quick fun questions.
What was your last binge watch?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Last binge watch?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And you can't say film?
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, man, you try to say film.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Philm nah Man. I'm trying to think about that.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
There was one point where, like, I never watched Game
of Thrones and then my wife made me watch that,
so I got that was a while back though. I
was binge watching that for a little bit. Uh yeah,
I never really watched TV, I know, I but uh yeah,
there's some movies like whatever they do, like Marathon one
of those things I'll watch that. I'll binge watch that.
It's some movies that I absolutely love. But uh yeah,
(18:25):
I'm not. I'm that's tough. I feel like I did
watch something else with my wife recently. Yeah, she's always
killing me that. I'm never into doing that watching the
show same thing.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, the last song you heard in the way in
this morning.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
This song I heard in the way in this morning.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I actually wasn't listening to the radio today, but the
last song I heard, Uh, shoot, I gotta think about that.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Man, that's a tough question.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I don't listen what do I go with?
Speaker 1 (18:53):
This is probably pretty stereotypical, But I got a playlist
a lot of old.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Uh, there's a lot of Sinatra in there, to be
honest with, Yeah, I listen to that. Dean Martin was
playing in our house all the time, so that that's uh,
I'm a big Dean Martin guy. But uh, yeah, yeah,
I know that's that's like an old squash. But there's
a lot of stuff I do listen to. But but yeah,
that's like, that's like the old playlist.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's out of the house on Sunday. So yeah, that's
on my card.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I'm sure the players can jive with that.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Best football memory?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Best football memory? Man, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
I mean, I think I got so many great football memories,
but I would say playing for my father in high
school is probably a tremendous memory of my entire you know,
high school experience, playing with him, playing for him, uh,
and then being around my brothers that way, I got
a lot of great memories growing up.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Watching them too. But yeah, obviously and.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Coaching, it's all been all been awesome. Man, you look
back at it, and I was thinking about that this morning.
You think about people and teams that you're on and
kind of takes you right back there, and uh, just
so appreciative so much of the time that I've spent in.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
This game, man, best sported than football.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Wrestling. Okay, yeah, without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
At tracks too.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I'm the last question I ask, is the person or
people who influenced you most. I'm gonna assume you're gonna
say your father, So tell me. I would think it
would be. They would have had to have been some
tough times playing for him, too. Just talk about that
experience overall, because that couldn't have been easy.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
No, No, I mean I think it was hard on
us and always. Uh you know, it's funny like even
you just mentioned that the other sports, Like I remember
wrestling when I was a kid. My dad was a
football coach, but like he cared as much or more
about wrestling because that was a one on one fight
with somebody every day, you know, And uh, you can't
(20:49):
blame anybody in the wrestling match. It ain't the right
guards fault. It ain't the defensive tackles fault. So, like,
I think it's a great way to grow up. And
he was, you know, always trying to put us in situations,
uh that way where you got to figure it out yourself.
You know, it's gonna take toughness, it's gonna take a
lot of effort and hard work. And uh, I think
(21:10):
we all, you know, myself, my brothers, my sister, we
all enjoyed doing that, doing the hard work.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
You know, do you think I should know it? But
how good a wrestler were you?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
No, I mean I would say it was a pretty
good wrestler. I loved wrestling.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
My little guy is wrestling right now and he's five,
so they got me started at that age. They got
him going right now, so he's uh, he's wrestling too.
And uh I loved wrestling. My brothers were all good
wrestlers too, so my uncle, uh, my uncle Richie.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Was a really good wrestler. So he was a huge
part of our life too.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
He played a He had a huge impact on me
also and coached me, coached all of us when we
were younger, so spent a lot of time around him
as a wrestler.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Too fantastic. I could talk football with you all day.
I really enjoy it. But thank you for the Ozone.
Thank you for doing the Ozone podcast, and I'll let
you get back to work.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Thank you, brother, appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
En
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