Tag: Sean Spencer

Florida football offers this defensive lineman out of Orlando

Florida offered fast-rising 3-star defensive lineman Kamran James out of Orlando on Feb. 28.

Three-star defensive lineman Kamran James has considered the Florida Gators the top football team in the state for most of his life. Then on Feb. 28, coach Billy Napier extended a scholarship offer to suit for the Orange and Blue with his parents and high school coach standing nearby.

James told Swamp247 that it felt like a dream. He was excited to receive the offer from Florida because he now has the opportunity to play college football close to home. The green light from coach Napier and his staff to play for the Gators meant a lot to him because it was important to him that he stayed somewhere close to Orlando, so his parents can watch him play.

“It’s a huge opportunity and another step up,” he said. “It just opens up more doors, and I’m really excited. I’m from Florida, and they’re just a top dog in Florida, so it’s an honor to be offered by the top dog, my local school.”

Before Feb. 28, most of James’ conversations have been with defensive line coach Sean Spencer. When he spoke to Napier, the former Lousiana-Lafayette coach said he liked his size, mobility and potential.

The Gators are the second SEC school to offer James along with Ole Miss and his 14th offer overall. So far, he has visited UCF, USF and Cincinnati and has plans to visit the Swamp on Friday. Finally, he said that he isn’t going to make a decision anytime soon and that he’s focused on improving in order to reach his full potential.

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Gators reportedly hiring this NFL assistant as co-defensive coordinator

The Gators bring in New York Giants assistant Sean Spencer to coach the defensive line and serve as co-defensive coordinator.

Florida’s on-field staff is close to being complete as the team has finally filled the second co-defensive coordinator spot. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel the Gators have hired New York Giants defensive line coach Sean Spencer to coach the same position group.

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman reported that Spencer will also serve as co-defensive coordinator alongside Patrick Toney, who followed coach Billy Napier from Louisiana.

Spencer had accepted a position on Mike Elko’s staff at Duke just a few days ago as the co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach, but it appears he will make the jump to the SEC instead. Florida previously made a reported run at former Alabama assistant and Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach Karl Scott as co-DC, but those conversations apparently fell through.

Known by his players as “Coach Chaos,” Spencer spent the last two seasons with the New York Giants after working in the same role under James Franklin at Penn State and Vanderbilt. In his final two years at Penn State in 2018 and 2019, he was also tabbed as the associate head coach.

Spencer is known as a fantastic recruiter and played a role in bringing several elite prospects to Happy Valley, including five-star Micah Parsons, who was a first-round pick for the Dallas Cowboys last year. Napier is clearly targeting a staff of recruiting specialists, and that should help address the talent deficit between the Gators and the teams at the top of the conference.

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Giants lose defensive line coach Sean Spencer to Duke

New York Giants defensive line coach Sean Spencer is leaving the team and taking a new role at Duke University.

It’s been a week of significant change for the New York Giants.

General manager Dave Gettleman has retired, head coach Joe Judge has been fired and several executives and coaches have begun to depart.

Offensive line coach Rob Sale took off for Florida, college scouting director Chad Klunder is headed to Duke and now defensive line coach Sean Spencer is exiting stage left as well.

Like Klunder, Spencer will now call Duke University home. He is expected to take over as the co-defensive coordinator.

Spencer — also known as “Coach Chaos” — was originally hired by the Giants in January of 2020. He was a fallback option after they missed out on Freddie Roach (who ended up at Alabama).

Before joining the Giants, Spencer had spent the six years at Penn State coaching the defensive line under James Franklin, whom he had worked with previously while at Vanderbilt (2011-2013). Prior to that, he had made stops Bowling Green, Massachusetts, Hofstra and Villanova, among others.

The Giants were Spencer’s first NFL opportunity.

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Giants’ Joe Judge attends wildly impressive Penn State Pro Day

New York Giants head coach Joe Judge was in person for an incredibly impressive PSU pro day that featured a lot of Sean Spencer praise.

Penn State players absolutely showed out during their official pro day on Thursday, and New York Giants head coach Joe Judge was front and center for all of the action.

Judge watched on as 2021 NFL draft hopefuls such as linebacker Micah Parsons, defensive end Shaka Toney, edge rusher Jayson Oweh and tight end Pat Freiermuth put on a show.

And we’re not kidding. Numbers across the board will raise the draft stock of several PSU players.

Beyond just the numbers, several Penn State players offered up high praise for Giants defensive line coach Sean Spencer, who held that position at PSU from 2014-2019.

There was a lot to take away from the performance of the players and their comments, but one thing is for certain: don’t be surprised if the Giants target a Penn State player over the first three rounds of the draft.

The connection to Spencer is strong, but the versatility and athleticism of PSU players is what will attract Judge & Co.

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Dave Gettleman wants Leonard Williams to do more than ‘buzz the tower’

New York Giants DL Leonard Williams worked on his upper body strength this offseason at the request of GM Dave Gettleman.

The biggest knock on the New York Giants’ financial commitment to defensive lineman Leonard Williams a King’s ransom this season is that Williams is an underachiever. His statistics do not warrant his whopping $16.1 million salary.

That is something the Giants are hoping to change this year. In 15 games last season (seven with the Jets, eight with the Giants), Williams recorded just 0.5 sacks, and he got that in the season finale.

The Giants unwisely parted with two draft picks at the deadline last October to acquire the former first rounder from the Jets, who were content with Williams hitting free agency after the season. Instead, the Giants used a 2020 third-round and 2021 fifth-round picks for an impending free agent.

Williams and the Giants could not reach an accord on a long-term contract this spring, forcing general manager Dave Gettleman to use the franchise tag on him, hence the lofty salary.

The Giants believe that Williams’ experience and infectious enthusiasm suits their needs for a young veteran leader on defense. He does play the run very well and cuts off the corners. It’s just that his pass rush is late.

The Giants believe building up Williams’ upper body strength may help him push past offensive lineman quicker and become a viable pass rusher.

Williams is just 26 and the Giants believe his best football is still in front of him.

“He’s doing a great job of taking the classroom work, the work we do in the meetings prior to practice and being able to bring that out on the field and do the things we’re asking him to do,” Giants defensive line coach Sean Spencer said this week. “Clearly, as you guys know, he’s an unbelievable athlete. I think he’s starting to put it all together. He’s always had the tools. He’s working on refining his craft right now. He looks strong, powerful like you said. I’m just happy with his progress right now.”

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Giants believe Leonard Williams is ‘starting to put it all together’

The New York Giants are confident that defensive lineman Leonard Williams is “starting to put it all together.”

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The New York Giants’ trade for defensive lineman Leonard “Big Cat” Williams last October was an ill-advised one for many reasons.

Williams was a) an impending free agent, b) going to demand a lot of money in free agency, c) his numbers were declining and d) the third-place Giants were going nowhere and should not be trading valuable draft capital for veteran players.

All of that turned out to be true. Williams and the Giants could not come to a contract agreement this past winter and the club was forced to use the franchise tag, retaining Williams’ services for this season at a whopping $16.1 million salary.

Williams also ended up costing the Giants two draft choices, sending the Jets their third round selection (No. 68, used to take Cal safety Ashtyn Davis) and a 2021 fifth rounder.

In addition, Williams continued his disappointing play, statistics-wise. He did not record a sack in this seven games with the Jets and was almost as futile in his eight games with the Giants, finally recording a half-sack in his eighth game in blue.

But stats aren’t everything. Williams’ presence on the defensive line was a legitimate one, and he was able to forge a steady alliance with the Giants’ other two starting linemen (Dalvin Tomlinson and Dexter Lawrence) and the Giants’ defense became effective against the run.

This summer, the Giants are confident they can build on that success from last year. They brought in Sean Spencer a.k.a ‘Coach Chaos’ to tutor the defensive line and believe that Williams, still just 26, could be ready to show off his first round form again.

“I think one thing is he’s doing a great job of taking the classroom work, the work we do in the meetings prior to practice and being able to bring that out on the field and do the things we’re asking him to do,” Spencer said of Williams on Monday.

“Clearly, as you guys know, he’s an unbelievable athlete. I think he’s starting to put it all together. He’s always had the tools. He’s working on refining his craft right now. He looks strong, powerful like you said. I’m just happy with his progress right now.”

Progress is one thing, but how is all of that going to equate to more pressures and sacks in 2020? Williams was credited with 16 QB hits in 2019 and Spencer is not focused solely on Williams doing that. He’s coaching the entire unit to play the same way.

“Obviously, as we stated before, he’s a tremendous athlete,” continued Spencer. “We need to take him from being just this tremendous athlete to refining him as a football player, and I think he’s working towards that right now. What I tell Leonard is the same thing I’ll tell Dex (Lawrence), the same thing I’ll tell Chris Slayton. Everybody is kind of coached the same. I don’t have a particular ‘this is a Leonard focus.’

“Clearly, there are things that he’s going to do really well that you want to use those tools. But at the same time within the framework of what I’m teaching, he’s doing those things and trying to articulate those things on the field.”

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James Franklin: Giants’ Sean Spencer ‘a psychopath in a positive way’

Penn State head coach James Franklin says New York Giants assistant Sean Spencer — “Coach Chaos” — is a psychopath, but in a positive way.

After taking over as head coach of the New York Giants, one of the first orders of business for Joe Judge was to hire Freddie Roach as their defensive line coach.

However, that hire fell through as Roach instead decided to return to the college ranks, taking a position on Nick Sabam’s staff at Alabama.

With an important void left to fill, Judge went out and scooped up Sean Spencer from Penn State, and as fate would have it, the Giants may be better off in the long run as a result. After all, Spencer, known as “Coach Chaos,” certainly seems like a better fit than Roach.

Spencer embodies Judge’s intense approach to the game of football, and he embraces the discipline and mental toughness that will become a part of every day life in East Rutherford. However, he may be a little more intense than many current players are used to.

“He’s a little bit of a psychopath in a positive way,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said of Spencer on “Big Blue Kickoff Live.” “He’s all over the place, he’s full of energy. His mind is going in 1,000 different directions, his body is as well. He coaches with passion, he coaches with enthusiasm. This is something that someone said a long time ago – ‘trained in the art of chaos’ – which is what he talks about all the time. It’s just kind of stuck with him. Same thing, he calls his players the wild dogs and shows them crazy videos of wild dogs in Africa hunting animals. He looks for as many different ways to motivate, connect, and have fun with his players as anybody I’ve been around.”

Franklin, who calls Spencer his “best friend,” was sad to see him leave Happy Valley, but believes his chaos has landed in the exact right place at the exact right time.

“This was a job that made sense for him,” Franklin said. “He had other opportunities. He’s had opportunities in the NFL the last couple of years and turned them down. Sean has been with me since my first day as a head coach. He’s been with me for nine years. We’re going to miss him.”

Franklin also expects Spencer’s on-field experience to benefit him well at the NFL level — it’s something that players will be able to relate to.

“You look, a lot of NFL and college coaches, a lot of us are coaching positions we didn’t play. There are a bunch of NFL coaches that never played college football before,” Franklin said. “Sean is a guy that had an opportunity, he coached offense, he coached defense, he coached a bunch of different positions. He had an opportunity at one point to start coaching the line and realized that he could make a heck of a career out of being one of the best d-line coaches in the country and has really embraced that and stuck with that, and has been phenomenal. Sean is a guy that understands schemes and techniques are critical, we get that, but it’s also about morale. It’s about relationships, it’s about connecting with people.

“You guys are going to love Sean. He’s fun to be around, he’s fun at practice, guys are going to love him. He enjoys himself, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s great in the community. You guys are really going to enjoy your time with Sean Spencer. He’s a phenomenal human being, a great friend of mine. I’m going to miss him and I couldn’t be more happy for him and his family.”

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Dalvin Tomlinson shares his thoughts on Giants’ new coaching staff

Defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson is excited about the New York Giants’ incoming coaching staff and recently shared his thoughts.

New York Giants defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson is getting prepared for his “contract year” in any and all ways that a player can in these times of crisis.

The former 2017 second-round pick out of Alabama is in the final year of his rookie deal and needs to prove to the Giants’ new coaching staff — and general manager Dave Gettleman — that he is worthy of a contract extension.

That is going to be difficult for Tomlinson to do. The Giants were scheduled to begin their offseason program on April 6 because they have a new head coach in Joe Judge. That obviously hasn’t happened and no one is sure when it will.

Until then, Tomlinson has to make do like the rest of the players in the NFL are currently doing and working out from home.

“I put on a mask to jog up and down the street, but I stay close to the house,” Tomlinson told the Daily News via phone this week. “It makes it a little bit tougher, but I’m doing interval sprints and stuff, so it’s not too bad… I’m staying indoors for the most part, unless I need to go to the grocery store. I pretty much have a gym in my garage now. I’m working out there. I’m running. And throughout the day I do some meal-prepping for the next day. And then a lot of video gaming.”

It isn’t going to be a baptism by fire for Tomlinson with the new coaching staff. Judge knows a little about Tomlinson from his close connection to Alabama head coach Nick Saban and his staff.

“I love Coach Judge,” Tomlinson said. “I could sense his energy already when I first met him before this started. I think everybody who’s had an affiliation with Alabama bonds a little bit. The first thing you say before anything is Roll Tide.”

Tomlinson will also have the luxury of familiarity with his new position coach, Sean Spencer, and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.

“The crazy thing is he actually recruited me out of high school when he was at Vanderbilt,” Tomlinson said of Spencer. “I’m excited about him. Great guy, great energy. I got to talk to him before (the shutdown). I’m looking forward to working with him.”

As for Graham, Tomlinson doesn’t have to go back as far. Graham was the Giants’ defensive line coach in 2017 under Ben McAdoo when Tomlinson was a rookie. He knows his modus operandi.

“Attention to detail,” Tomlinson said of Graham. “He’s gonna critique you, help you grow as a player and as a person off the field, too. He wants the most out of every one of his players. He’s going to push you and get the full potential. He’s great at developing players.”

Even though Tomlinson was a Jerry Reese draft pick, he needn’t worry about wooing Gettleman too much. He very much on the forefront of the GM’s mind.

When talking about the team’s long term plans on a conference call with reporters this week, Gettleman included Tomlinson on the list of core players he hopes to build around.

“Part of the tight rope that I walk on is short-term and long-term,” he said. “Part of the long-term is we have some good, young players right now. We’ve got Dalvin Tomlinson, (Evan) Engram and (Jabrill) Peppers. We have to make decisions on them,” Gettleman said.

And Tomlinson wants that decision to be one that keeps him Blue for a long time.

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Report: Giants to hire Sean Spencer as defensive line coach

The New York Giants are expected to hire Penn State defensive line coach Sean Spencer to that same role.

The New York Giants had initially agreed to bring Freddie Roach on as their defensive line coach, but he ultimately decided to return to Ole Miss and then jet off to Alabama for the 2020 season.

That put the Giants and head coach Joe Judge in a bit of a rough spot, forcing them to go back out into the field to find a replacement.

That replacement has now been located.

Matt Lombardo of NJ Advance Media reports that the Giants are expected to hire Penn State defensive line coach Sean Spencer to fill that same role.

The Giants have hired former Penn State defensive line coach Sean Spencer to fill the same role on Joe Judge’s coaching staff, an individual with knowledge of the team’s plans tells NJ Advance Media.

Spencer has spent the last six year at Penn State coaching the defensive line under James Franklin, whom he had worked with previously while at Vanderbilt (2011-2013). Prior to that, he had made stops Bowling Green, Massachusetts, Hofstra and Villanova, among others.

This will be the first time Spencer coaches at the NFL level.

Spencer brings a real “dog” mentality to the Giants, earning the nickname “Coach Chaos” during his time in Happy Valley, while calling his crew — you guessed it — “Wild Dogs.”

Under Spencer’s watch, the Nittany Lions have consistently had one of the country’s best defensive line, which produced 45 sacks a season ago. They have recorded 40 or more sacks for five consecutive years.

Spencer is likely the final piece to the Giants’ brand new coaching staff. An announcement on all of the hires is imminent.

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