GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night announced they have hired Anthony Campanile, the Green Bay Packers’ fiery and highly regarded linebackers coach and defensive run-game coordinator, to be their new defensive coordinator.
It’s a big loss for the Packers. With Campanile, the Packers fielded their best run defense in years and rookie Edgerrin Cooper emerged as one of the NFL’s top young defensive players.
Not surprisingly considering his success and full-throttle approach, Campanile emerged as a coordinator candidate, including at Penn State. He interviewed with new Jaguars coach Liam Coen on Tuesday and got the job on Thursday.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who filled vacancies at defensive line coach and quarterbacks coach on Thursday, now needs to replace Campanile. Or, he could promote the in-house candidate, Sean Duggan.
When Hafley was defensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2019, Duggan was a graduate assistant. When Hafley got the head job at Boston College in 2020, he hired Duggan to be his linebackers coach. In 2023, Hafley promoted Duggan to co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
So, there’s a trust and a relationship between coach and coordinator, plus a relationship between Duggan and the players on the depth chart.
Duggan played linebacker at Boston College. For his career, he recorded 115 tackles, including 6.5 for losses, and intercepted two passes. He was a team captain in 2014.
Campanile was the Miami Dolphins’ linebackers coach from 2020 through 2023. He was a coordinator candidate last year – he interviewed with the Giants – but Hafley lured him to Green Bay so they could finally work together.
As they expected, they hit it off.
“We’ve never worked together, but I feel like I’ve known him for over 15 years,” Hafley said late in the season. “We’re from the same area. When I was a younger coach, even coaching Division III and I-AA, he was at a high school, and I used to go to it all the time and we just kind of hit it off and we’d hang out. We’d meet up after and just talk football, draw plays.
“And then I got to Pitt, he came and visited me and we continued to have a really good friendship and relationship. A lot of that started with the respect I had for him and how hard he worked. I tried to get him to college football and then it worked out [in Green Bay]. We’ve just become really close. I have a huge amount of respect for him as a coach, his knowledge, how hard he coaches, his intensity but, more importantly, as a person.”
Now, once again, they will have a long-distance relationship.
“He’s an extremely loyal friend; he always has been,” Hafley continued about Campanile. “He’s a guy that, no matter where I’ve been, if I picked up the phone and needed anything, I know he’d be right there. When Matt first called me, he was one of my first phone calls once we decided to go in this direction.
“He had a bunch of opportunities to go elsewhere, and we had been kind of waiting to do this for a while. We were on two separate planes on the way home from the last game and we were texting back and forth and he just wrote me a text back, ‘How cool is this? This is what we always talked about doing.’”
As Green Bay’s linebackers coach and defensive run-game coordinator this year, it finished seventh in the NFL against the run and third in rushing yards allowed per carry. It was the first time the Packers allowed less than 100 rushing yards per game since 2009.
“I definitely think there’s always things you can do better, but I think these guys are totally bought into what we’re teaching,” Campanile said before Week 18. “I firmly believe that there’s a progression each play – your eyes, your feet, your hands – and then there’s got to be a violent finish. That’s how every football play should start and end.
“If your eyes are right, your feet will be right, you’ll get there and your hands will buy you time. That’s some of the fundamental things about defending the run, those are essential. Your body position, where your feet are, not compromising your base, playing with great hands and technique, pad level. Some people talk about those things, but you’ve got to drill those things every day, almost like to the point where it’s a martial art.”
Now, it will be up to someone else to hone the skills of the All-Rookie Cooper, a second-round pick, and Ty’Ron Hopper, a third-round pick. Quay Walker will be back in 2025, as well, but Eric Wilson and Isaiah McDuffie will be free agents.
Campanile found fame through a legendary scene during HBO’s Hard Knocks while with the Dolphins in 2023. During a team meeting, Campanile started talking about Vince Lombardi before a profanity-filled speech about the importance of football.
“You’re at your best when you’re doing things for people you love. All the time you practice, all the time you spend away from the people you love, our job is on Sunday, literally, to honor those people. That’s it. That’s our job. Go out there and honor the people you love. Play as f—ing hard as you can. Attack the f—ing ball like it’s some guy running down the street with your mother, your father, my kids.
“There ain’t no f—ing way that guy’s getting away from me. And there certainly ain’t anybody getting under my f—ing pads to block me, to stop me from bringing him back in my life. That ain’t going to f—ing happen. But if you’re treated like that all the time, you f—ing practice like that, you commit to practicing like that with each other, you’re f—ing unstoppable. Don’t know who the f— is going to stop you from doing what you want to do.
“Everybody understands ass whooping. I can go to Greece and somebody starts getting their f—ing ass whooped, we all understand what’s happening. We’re all speaking the same language. We might not be able to communicate, but if somebody is getting their ass kicked, nothing’s lost in translation.
“All over the world, they speak ass whooping. To the day you die. So, here’s what I’m saying, let’s eliminate that factor. They can’t outwork us. Eliminate that and let’s see what the f— happens. Don’t stop throwing punches, don’t stop attacking the ball, don’t f—ing stop finishing blocks, and let’s see what happens.”
