Joe DeCamillis Explains Why He Passed On Going Back To The NFL To Coach College Ball
There aren't many people in today's age of football who spend over three decades at the NFL level, where your primary worry is the X's and O's, that leave the league altogether to move down to the college level where, right now, the responsibilities that come with the job are arguably more stressful and plentiful than they've ever been. That's the decision that South Carolina's new special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis came to after spending this past season as the special assistant to head coach Steve Sarkisian at Texas, a place DeCamillis credited heavily in his introductory press conference on Friday for "[getting him] turned onto college football."
Joe DeCamillis talking to someone on the field during a game with the Jacksonville Jaguars (8th Nov., 2020)
Reinhold Matay | USA Today Network
The main reason Joe is staying in college football and passed on several opportunities to go back to the NFL, based on what he conveyed, is that he feels his unit can have a greater impact on this level based on the current rules that are in place. Player development is another aspect that intrigues the son-in-law of the late Dan Reeves, who thinks that special teams serves as the building blocks for a player not just being able to perform better fundamentally but for a coach to gain belief that they can help the team in other ways.
"You're trying to develop a player that wants to be a great player on offense or defense. But if they show that they're a good player on [special] teams, a lot of times [the head coach] gets confidence in them. The defensive coordinator, Clayton [White], gets confidence in him. Dowell [Loggains] gets confidence in him. The receiver coach gets confidence in him. When you see him block [and] tackle, when you see him run with the ball in their hands and do things that are positive, then it has a chance to help them all the way across, and you've got to show them, 'hey man, if you do this right, you're going to get more playing time on offense or defense,'" DeCamillis explained. "I want to see a guy graduate. I want to see a guy turn into a great player, and that's part of developing players, in my opinion."
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