Tag: Joe DeCamillis

Former Rams special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis hired by Texas Longhorns

The Rams parted ways with Joe DeCamillis this offseason, but he’s landed a new job at the college level

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Joe DeCamillis was one of the many assistant coaches the Rams did not bring back this offseason, making big changes to Sean McVay’s staff before the 2023 campaign. He was their special teams coordinator for the last two years after spending four years with the Jaguars, his second stint in Jacksonville.

DeCamillis wasn’t hired by another team but he did just land a new job at the college level. According to Chip Brown of Horns247, the Texas Longhorns are hiring DeCamillis. He’ll join the staff as a special assistant to the head coach.

DeCamillis leaves the Rams with a Super Bowl ring on his finger, helping them win a championship in his first season in 2021. This will be his first job at the collegiate level after coaching in the NFL since 1991.

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Steve Sarkisian channels his inner Nick Saban with latest coaching hires

Steve Sarkisian is using a Nick Saban approach to fill out his coaching staff.

Part of what makes Nick Saban arguably the greatest college football coach of all time is how he creates advantages for his teams. The Alabama head coach prioritizes recruiting, facilities, nutrition and much more.

One of the ways Saban has gained a leg up on his competition over the past decade is by utilizing the analyst position.

Saban takes coaches with notable experience from Power Five jobs looking for an opportunity to help and learn from the Crimson Tide program. Notable names to join the Saban analyst room include Charlie Strong, Mark Stoops, Butch Jones and Steve Sarkisian.

Sarkisian is one of the many success stories to revive his career under Saban. Now as the head coach at Texas, Sarkisian is using a similar approach to his former boss.

Texas has hired former Wisconsin head coach Paul Chrsyt and longtime NFL assistant Joe DeCamillis as special assistants to the head coach.

Added experience to the Texas coaching staff serves as a benefit to the Longhorns. Chrsyt and DeCamillis have been around the game of football at a high level.

Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes and opinions.

Report: Texas football hires Joe DeCamillis as special assistant to head coach

Texas has found their replacement for Gary Patterson.

Steve Sarkisian went to the NFL ranks to hire a new member of his coaching staff.

247Sports reports Texas is bringing in longtime NFL special teams coach Joe DeCamillis in a special assistant to head coach role. The position was previously held by former TCU head coach Gary Patterson.

DeCamillis has won two super bowls as a special teams coordinator in the NFL. One with the Denver Broncos in 2016 and another with the LA Rams in 2022. His special teams units are consistently among the upper echelon of the NFL.

He is a well-respected coach with 31 years of NFL experience under his belt. DeCamillis will now bring his ideas to the college game for the first time with this Texas staff. The Longhorns coaching staff is locked and loaded for the 2023 season.

Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes and opinions.

4 options for Colts to replace Bubba Ventrone

Here are four options the Colts can consider to replace Bubba Ventrone.

The Cleveland Browns hired former Indianapolis Colts special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone last week.

The move ended weeks of speculation about Ventrone’s status with the organization and left a significant void to fill both on the field and in the locker room.

Ventrone is a phenomenal coach whose talents catapulted the Colts’ special teams unit to elite ranking. Replacing him will be difficult, but the team has some formidable options to consider under new head coach Shane Steichen.

Here are four options for replacing Bubba Ventrone:

Tutu Atwell has been ‘much better’ on punt returns, ‘work in progress’ on kickoffs

ST coordinator Joe DeCamillis sees improvement from Tutu Atwell on punt returns, but he’s still a “work in progress” as a kick returner

The Rams likely have their primary punt returner already on the roster after Brandon Powell excelled in that role last season, but Tutu Atwell is another player they like in that role. Though he struggled a bit on special teams last season, he’s working to improve as a return specialist in 2022.

Special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis said this week that he can see Atwell improving on punt returns, saying he’s looked “much better” and “much more comfortable.” However, Atwell is still a work in progress on kickoffs, where there will be plenty of competition.

“I would say on punt returns, much better. Much more comfortable, making better decisions. Kickoff return wise, still a work in progress,” DeCamillis said of Atwell. “We’ll see how that goes but we got a great competition there. There’s a lot of guys there. Ray Calais is coming back. (Kyren Williams) is not out here yet but he’s going to be in the mix. I think we got some guys to compete with Brandon for sure.”

Atwell returned 10 punts for 54 yards last season, with a long return of 17 yards. He wasn’t great on kickoffs, only gaining 87 yards on five attempts – an average of 17.4 yards per return.

It was actually on a punt return that Atwell injured his shoulder last season, causing him to miss the rest of the year after playing just eight games. If the Rams have plans for him on offense, keeping him off special teams and out of harm’s way might be the best option.

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Rams’ Joe DeCamillis holds ‘situational masters’ meetings every week with the whole team

Joe DeCamillis is the Rams’ special teams coordinator, but he does more than just coach that phase of the game

Joe DeCamillis joined the Rams as their special teams coordinator last year and immediately helped them improve in that area. Brandon Powell became a huge part of the return game, Matt Gay made the Pro Bowl and the overall operation on special teams was much better.

But he does more than coach special teams players. He helps the Rams situationally on game days and throughout the week. In a recent video, DeCamillis revealed that he holds “situational masters” meetings every week, and not just for special teams guys.

He has everyone in those meetings, including the quarterbacks.

“I actually have a meeting on situational masters every week, and everybody’s in there, including the quarterbacks,” he said. “So I think what Coach McVay wants to do is empower everybody, but he also knows that because of my position, I’m gonna know situations, I’m gonna know the rules, all those type of things, and it’s been a pretty cool deal being here with him.”

In the video, DeCamillis details his journey to becoming a special teams coach, believing he would be a teacher and a coach long ago. He’s gone on to have a successful career in the NFL, coaching special teams since 1988 when he got started with the Broncos.

Joe DeCamillis considers Jalen Ramsey one of the ‘greatest players in the world’

The Rams’ new special teams coordinator is a big fan of Jalen Ramsey.

There are a lot of reasons the Rams ranked No. 1 in the NFL in points allowed and yards allowed last season, but no players were more important to their defensive success than Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey. They were each Pro Bowlers, each were first-team All-Pros and Donald came away with his third Defensive Player of the Year award.

Donald is widely regarded as the best player in football, but Ramsey is at the top of the class as far as cornerbacks go, too.

Joe DeCamillis won’t necessarily get to coach Ramsey or Donald as the Rams’ new special teams coordinator, but having spent time with Ramsey in Jacksonville, he puts him right there with Donald as two of the best players in the league.

“Well, he might be 1-A and 1-B as far as the greatest players in the world,” DeCamillis said of Ramsey last week. “But, he’s a great dude. I mean, I know he’s passionate and he wants to win football games. That’s what Jalen’s all about. I know he’ll do whatever we ask of him and he’ll do it as hard as he can as fast as he can. So, I love Jalen. I’m glad to be back with him.”

Earlier in his introductory press conference, DeCamillis shared his excitement after bumping into Donald at the Rams’ facility, saying he’s “probably the greatest player in the world, which was awesome to see.”

Donald and Ramsey weren’t the only quality players on the Rams’ defense last season, with Darious Williams, Leonard Floyd and John Johnson all playing critical roles, as did many others. But they were the alphas on that side of the ball and thankfully, they remain under contract in Los Angeles for the foreseeable future.

Joe DeCamillis not worried about Johnny Hekker’s down year in 2020

Johnny Hekker had a down year in 2020, but Joe DeCamillis still views him as one of the top punters in the league, if not the best.

In a year when the Rams’ special teams unit performed as one of the worst in the NFL, Johnny Hekker had his own share of struggles in 2020. Particularly in the second half of the season, Hekker wasn’t hitting the booming punts fans have gotten so used to seeing.

He averaged a career-low 45.6 yards per punt, a career-low 39.7 net yards and had a punt blocked for just the third time. He did pin 28 of his 68 punts inside the 20, but Hekker wasn’t his usual self.

That doesn’t necessarily concern new Rams special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis, however. He still views Hekker as one of the best punters in the league, if not the top guy at his position.

“I still think he’s, if not the top punter in the league, he’s one of the top punters in the league,” DeCamillis told reporters in his first press conference. “Sometimes, you just get in situations where you may be in different parts of the field where you’re not able to drive the ball as far as you did in certain other years. So, that’s part of it. We’re going through all those stats and all the all those metrics right now, trying to figure it out. But, I think he’s a great punter and hopefully next year he has a better year. That’s my hope. That’s what our goal is.”

In addition to his punting numbers lagging, Hekker also went the entire year without attempting a single pass – the first time in his career that’s happened. DeCamillis said earlier in the week that he’ll be campaigning with Hekker for more fake punts, and during his introductory press conference Thursday, he clarified that those opportunities don’t always come up.

It’s obvious that DeCamillis wants to keep opponents on their toes and one way to do that is by calling fakes every now and then.

“It depends on the situation. I think it depends on what the head coach’s plan is, what your team plan is,” he said. “You want to play complementary football as much as possible. Sometimes, they come up. Sometimes they don’t. In Jacksonville, we were very successful the last few years doing that and I know having the talent that John (Fassel) has, I hope we’re able to continue the ‘trickeration.’ That’s what I hope happens. So, we’ll see what happens.”

The Rams need to be better in every phase of special teams, including punting. Hekker knows that, and so does DeCamillis. It’s just a matter of pinning teams deep and bailing out the offense when it fails to move the ball.

Joe DeCamillis emphasizes importance of Rams finding ‘a great returner’

The Rams didn’t get much out of the return game in 2020.

The Rams’ special teams unit was far from special in 2020. It was one of the worst groups in the NFL, finishing 30th in Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings. Their struggles led Sean McVay to make a change, hiring Joe DeCamillis as his new special teams coordinator and shifting John Bonamego into a senior assistant role.

No matter where you look, the Rams had issues – whether it was in field goal accuracy, kickoffs, punting and the return game. Specifically on kickoff returns, the Rams ranked 22nd with an average of only 20.6 yards per return. And on punt returns, they were just as bad: 23rd in return average (6.9).

DeCamillis was introduced to the media on Thursday and he emphasized the importance of having a great returner.

“We’ve got to get a great returner. We’ve got to get a guy that can ring the bell and drop the ball over the goal line,” he said.

This doesn’t sound like good news for Nsimba Webster, who was the Rams’ primary return specialist last season. However, DeCamillis clarified that the team is still evaluating the return game and blocking is a big part of that.

They’d love to find a Devin Hester-type of returner, but when the blocking is good, it makes life a lot easier for the returner.

Whether in the draft or in free agency, the Rams will likely add some competition at that spot this offseason. The shorter the field they can give the offense, the better off they will be in 2021 – and they simply didn’t get the job done in that regard last season.

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Rams ST coordinator Joe DeCamillis shares what about Matt Gay impressed him

Matt Gay should be the Rams’ long-term solution at kicker, even with Joe DeCamillis coming in.

One of the Rams’ biggest challenges last season was finding a kicker to replace Greg Zuerlein, who signed with the Cowboys in free agency. After giving Samuel Sloman, Austin MacGinnis, Lirim Hajrullahu and Kai Forbath all a chance at some point, the Rams finally landed on Matt Gay.

And they should be so thankful that they did.

Gay turned out to be not only an immediate solution to the Rams’ kicking woes, but is likely to be their long-term kicker, too. Gay made 14 of his 16 field goal attempts with Los Angeles and didn’t miss in his final six games of the season, including the playoffs.

New special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis shared his early thoughts on Gay in a conversation with J.B. Long, coming away impressed with how consistent the kicker is despite being fairly new to the job after mostly playing soccer.

“He’s got great technique. For doing it for not that long, it’s amazing how quickly he picked up the technique – so it’s repeatable, which is what you want,” he said. “The other thing I would say is he’s got the power in his leg to be a good NFL placekicker, which a lot of guys don’t have. So those are the two things that stuck out to me.”

DeCamillis was the Jaguars’ special teams coordinator last season and for as bad as the Rams’ kicking issues were, Jacksonville’s were undoubtedly worse. They cycled through six kickers and only made 72% of their field goal attempts, third-worst in the NFL.

They actually had Gay on their radar, DeCamillis said, and he wishes they would’ve picked him up.

“Unfortunately, we went through six kickers here in Jacksonville this past year due to injury and due to some other things, COVID, all that kind of stuff. But he was a guy that was on our radar. I wish we would’ve picked him up. You guys got him and I’m glad we got him now,” DeCamillis said.

Gay was a former fifth-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2019 but the team gave up on him after he struggled as a rookie. The Rams are happy to have him now and the hope is he can be their kicker for the foreseeable future.

If he keeps kicking the way he did last season, there’s no reason to believe that won’t be the case.