A Titans Head Coaching Profile: Anthony Campanile

6 days ago 2

Anthony Campanile is a first-year defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars and is one of the lesser-known names in the Titans’ head coaching search. He is one of those names I’d say is a person that insiders won’t mention as much, but management and coaches around the league adore. This is one I have also adored ever since I did a deep dive on him. Out of all of the Titans’ head coaching candidates that I’ve covered, this is the one I have been most excited to cover for quite some time. I mean, whenever there’s a head coaching candidate that has a very uncanny resemblance to Nashville comedian Nate Bargatzi, of course, I’m gonna be interested.

All joking aside, though, I’m starting to realize that out of all the first-timers in this coaching cycle, Campanile is my favorite. I’ll look at some coaching candidates every week that pique my interest for maybe two days, then I always end up back at Campanile. It’s the weirdest thing. It’s not even like he’s a popular candidate or anything; he has something about him that makes me feel like he’s gonna be a great head coach someday. So, without further ado, this is the head coaching profile of Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator, Anthony Campanile.

Anthony Campanile’s Background

Now, there’s obviously a lot of stuff to get into with Campanile and what he brings to the table, but before getting into that, it’s necessary to look into how Campanile got here. This path is, like last week’s, kind of weird, though not as odd as Matt Nagy’s: it still has its weird things. It all started in 2006, when Campanile (I’ll call him Camp from now on) got his first coaching job as a linebackers coach at Fair Lawn High School. After a year there, he went to Don Bosco Prep School to be a defensive coordinator from 2007-2009. Now this is when it gets weird. After his time as a defensive coordinator, Don Bosco made him the offensive coordinator in 2010, and he would serve in that position for two years.

After his time in the high school game, Rutgers brought Camp on as a defensive assistant, where he would stay in that position from 2012-2013. After this, he was promoted to tight ends coach, and after two years there, he became the wide receivers coach in 2015. In 2016, Boston College hired Camp as a defensive backs coach, where he would stay for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. He continued to climb the ladder at Boston College as he was promoted to Co-Defensive Coordinator, while staying a defensive backs coach in 2018.

After this, he got one of the biggest breaks of his coaching career when Jim Harbaugh called Camp and asked him to be the linebackers coach at Michigan. After spending 2019 at Michigan, Camp finally got the call-up to the NFL when Brian Flores decided to hire him as the linebackers coach for the Miami Dolphins, where he would serve from 2020-2023. After his time in Miami, his connection with Jeff Hafley came back around because he decided to hire Camp as his run-game coordinator and linebackers coach with the Green Bay Packers. After a year there, Camp was brought in by Liam Coen to become the defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and his tenure in Duval has led to him being a sought-after coaching candidate.

Anthony Campanile’s positives

Anthony Campanile has a lot of positives when it comes to his upside as a potential head coach for the Tennessee Titans. The first positive and my favorite is the fire Camp will bring if he were to land the job. Look, obviously, this first point comes from the iconic clip of Camp on Hard Knocks when he was talking to the team, and he said that (keeping it PG) butt whooping is a universal language. You can see that video here (again, warning on language).

Every coach can attempt to get fiery and hype up his team, no doubt, but y’all saw what happened when Callahan tried that; it was disastrous. I think you can tell if you watched the video, though, it’s very obvious Camp is not that type of guy. This is the type of energy we need to get the culture back on the right track, and it’s even better because it’s youthful. The energy this guy has is completely unmatched, and he is just a big boost to any room he enters.

The next positive I want to mention is the connections he has for his potential offensive coordinator. First off, he has connections to three current offensive coordinators who do not call plays for their teams. Frank Smith from the Dolphins, Adam Stenavich from the Packers, and even Grant Udinski from the Jaguars are the names. He still has connections to other names, too. Sean Mannion from the Packers, Jon Embree with the Dolphins, and even Josh McDaniels’ brother, Ben, who is currently with the Houston Texans.

This gives him a huge advantage compared to many other newcomers, especially considering that the only other defensive mind I covered with decent connections was Chris Shula. Camp blows Chris Shula’s connections out of the water. Look, I hate the idea of hiring a defensive-minded coach, but remember that hiring one lets the offensive coordinator focus on Cam Ward’s development without all the head coaching responsibilities. His connections make me not worried in the slightest when it comes to Anthony Campanile’s ability to hire an offensive coordinator.

The last thing I’ll mention is the impact he’s had everywhere he’s been in the 2o2os. Part of this comes from the fire he has, but we still need to remember that hype doesn’t get you that far. When taking a look at the linebacker corps for the Miami Dolphins in 2020, PFF had them ranked at number 29th in the NFL. During Camp’s last year with the Dolphins, the linebacker core ranked 12th, an undeniable upgrade from where they were in 2020.

When he was hired as the defensive run game coordinator, the Packers’ run defense ranked 28th in the NFL. At the end of his one year in Green Bay, the rushing defense ranked 7th! After this, Liam Coen hired Camp, and the same results came through. During 2024, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ total defense ranked 31st, then Camp came in, and I’m sure you can guess what happens next, but I’ll tell you anyway. The Jacksonville Jaguars’ defense ranked 13th! I don’t get how people don’t see his impact, and even though his positives are incredibly strong, especially for a first-time head coach.

Anthony Campanile’s negatives

Though Camp has some of the best positives out of all the head coaches that I’ve covered, he still has some problems. The first gripe I have with Camp is his youth and lack of experience. You see, Camp is only 43, and while that sounds a little older, thanks to Callahan still being in his 30s when we hired him, Camp still isn’t that old, all things considered. Still, though, age is just a number, so maybe this means that Camp may be youthful, but still have a lot of experience, right?

This is where Camp is actually an anomaly in this head coaching search among the candidates. So far, Camp is the only coordinator that I have covered (and he might be the only one) who has only had one year of experience as a coordinator. This could lead to some problems, especially when it comes to how the front office is looking to approach this head coaching search. With Mike Borgonzi, looking for a more experienced coach for this job, whether it’s a coordinator who’s been around or a former head coach, they want experience.

Also, (not related to what the office wants), Camp could be woefully underprepared for the job, not only in Tennessee, but in general. The next negative I want to bring up is how, and this may have something to do with youth, his unit has had a moment or two, where they randomly fall apart. Specifically, I’m looking at the second Houston Texans game for this one. When looking at the Texans game, the Jaguars’ defense started red hot as they forced two turnovers and went up 29-10 in the 4th quarter, but Camp got too conservative, and they let up 26 points unanswered.

Also, the defense completely fell apart in the Rams game earlier in the season and let up 21 unanswered points in the first half. This could be a bad sign for how his teams would be able to overcome adversity. When his unit even faced a little adversity in those two games, they completely fell apart. This is a serious problem because this is something that we, as Titans fans, have seen far too many times. Whether it was the last year of Vrabel or it was the entire Callahan era, we saw our team start hot and then completely fall apart. So from that standpoint, it’s debatable whether he’s the best fit.

The last thing that’s seriously worth mentioning is the discipline issues that a Camp-led team might have. Out of all the teams in the NFL, the Jacksonville Jaguars rank 9th in total defensive penalties. Now, this doesn’t discount the fact that the defense has been one of the best in the league, but it is a little worrying. This defense has had some discipline issues when it comes to penalties, and that usually reflects on the coach. It’s another thing that speaks to his youth, that sometimes, he just doesn’t have his defense under control overall. All in all, while Camp is impressive, his discipline issues are still something to seriously consider when interviewing him.

How Likely Is Campanile to get hired?

Overall, Anthony Campanile is a very intriguing candidate, all things considered. Sure, he may not be the most experienced, but whenever you look for a leader, it shouldn’t only come down to age. Now, how likely is Antony Campanile to get hired? Well, that’s the problem. I’m pretty confident that if the Titans go with youth, it will be one of Shula or Minter. So I don’t think that Camp is all that likely to get hired as the Titans’ next head coach. Now that leads to the question, what do I think?

Well, as a coaching candidate, I think that Camp is absolutely one of the best coaching candidates the Titans will come across. If anything, he might be my guy in this cycle. Sure, he’s young, but so is the team, and I think if anything, he would be a very strong culture coach. His offensive connections also give me confidence that his staff could develop Cam, even if the offensive coordinator wasn’t the 3 current, non-playcalling ones in the NFL, because he would’ve picked his guy over a current offensive coordinator, and whoever gets him is getting a good one.

Also, if you want to check out my other stuff, you can do it here.

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