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Tag: Hafley
Jaguars interview a top Jeff Hafley assistant for DC job
GREEN BAY — Not long after taking over as the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator and filling out his staff, Jeff Hafley was rattling off the names of all the new assistants he’d brought on board.
When he got to Anthony Campanile, whom Hafley had tabbed (with head coach Matt LaFleur’s blessing) as the Packers linebackers coach and defensive run-game coordinator, he called the ex-Miami Dolphins assistant a “star” and a “brilliant football coach.”
By the end of the Packers’ 2024 season, Campanile had proven to be as advertised — which at least in part explains why he interviewed for the Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator job on Tuesday with new Jags head coach Liam Coen.
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The Jaguars announced Campanile’s interview, which made him the fourth candidate Jacksonville has spoken with about the job. Campanile joins Los Angeles Rams defensive pass-game coordinator/assistant head coach Aubrey Pleasant, Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and Minnesota Vikings defensive pass-game coordinator/defensive backs coach Daronte Jones on the Jaguars’ interview list.
Campanile is one of Hafley’s most trusted assistants and goes back nearly two decades with him, even though they’d never actually worked together until Hafley hired Campanile last February after he’d spent four years coaching the Dolphins’ linebackers and after he went viral for his impassioned speech to his players during an episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
Campanile not only helped 2022 first-round pick Quay Walker put together his best season until a late-in-the-year ankle injury stunted his growth, but he also shepherded rookie second-round pick Edgerrin Cooper through early-season growing pains on his way to being arguably the defense’s biggest field-tilter during the second half of the year.
“Oh, he wants us to get the job done,” said Cooper, who in 14 games (four starts) registered 3.5 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, 87 total tackles, an interception, four passes defensed, seven quarterback hits, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. “He’s a coach that never relaxes. He wants the best for us.”
Campanile, whose father Mike is a legendary high-school football coach in New Jersey with four sons who’ve all become successful coaches, first got to know Hafley by running in the same New Jersey coaching circles.
“We just kind of hit it off and we’d hang out and just talk football, draw plays,” recalled Hafley, who then would come back to visit Campanile at his high school after Hafley broke into coaching at the Division I level at the University of Pittsburgh. “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 (to bring him to 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. He’s an extremely loyal friend — he always has been. 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, (Campanile) 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 (together) for a while. … So it’s actually really neat to finally get a chance to coach with him.”
If Campanile gets the Jaguars job, it would create a third opening on the Packers’ staff. The team needs to hire a new quarterbacks coach after the retirement of 71-year-old Tom Clements, and a defensive line coach after Jason Rebrovich was fired after the season ended.
Campanile spoke at length about his coaching philosophy late in the season when asked about the improvement he’d seen from Walker, who after an up-and-down first two NFL seasons seemed to finally find his footing in Hafley’s 4-3 system—despite struggling with his confidence.
“One of the things that I feel like has helped me is coaching at a bunch of a different levels of football. I started out as a high-school coach,” Campanile explained in December. “I grew up around high-school football with my father and my brothers and everything.
“Everybody has a different personality, and I think part of being a coach is understanding that you don’t coach everybody the exact same way. It just doesn’t work that way. There’s different personalities and maybe that’s part of the teacher element of being a coach, knowing how you’ve got to teach every guy and talk to every guy.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars are making moves to fill their defensive coordinator position, and they are looking at a top assistant from Jeff Hafley’s coaching staff.According to sources, the Jaguars have interviewed one of Hafley’s top defensive assistants for the DC job. Hafley, the head coach of the Boston College Eagles, has built a strong defensive unit during his time at the helm, and the Jaguars are hoping to bring some of that success to their team.
The assistant, whose name has not been disclosed, is highly regarded for his knowledge of the game and his ability to develop players. He has worked closely with Hafley to implement a successful defensive scheme, and the Jaguars are excited about the potential impact he could have on their defense.
Stay tuned for more updates as the Jaguars continue their search for a new defensive coordinator.
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Justin Jefferson vs. Jeff Hafley
GREEN BAY, Wis. – How is the Green Bay Packers’ injury-plagued secondary going to be able to handle Minnesota Vikings star Justin Jefferson?
With premier cornerback Jaire Alexander and starting safety Evan Williams out and safety Javon Bullard questionable for Sunday’s Packers-Vikings showdown at U.S. Bank Stadium, that is the million-dollar question.
But that’s not exactly the right question, according to defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.
“When we’re defending the pass and Justin Jefferson and all these good wideouts and Sam Darnold, it’s not just, ‘Put it on the DBs,’” Hafley said on Thursday. “It’s, ‘What can we do as a defense to make sure that we’re playing well back there?’
“We’re rushing well, we’re sending pressures, we’re running good games, we’re dropping into different zones, right? We’re taking a lot of pride in how we disguise things right now. The players are taking a lot of pride in that right now. So, we’re doing it together, and I think that’s the biggest key to it all right now.”
That’s how the Packers won at Seattle a few weeks ago. The Seahawks have a quality veteran quarterback with Geno Smith, a big-time veteran receiver with D.K. Metcalf, an impressive young receiver with Jaxon Smith-Njigba and a solid veteran with Tyler Lockett.
Facing a Packers secondary playing without Alexander and Bullard, Smith was 15-of-19 passing for 149 yards. However, he threw one interception and was sacked three times in about two-and-a-half quarters. He led the Seahawks to just two field goals.
To Hafley, it wasn’t just because Keisean Nixon rose to the occasion or that Carrington Valentine and Eric Stokes played well, though that’s true.
The pass rush provided seven sacks and generated pressure on more than half of Seattle’s dropbacks.
The Seahawks completed 20 passes; the Packers gave up just 54 yards after the catch.
“I think you got to look at it (as) it’s not how the secondary’s done it,” Hafley said. “We’ve done it as a team and we’ve done it as a defense, and I think that’s the biggest thing that we’re stressing to these guys right now.”
The Vikings’ offense is better than Seattle’s, though. Quarterback Sam Darnold has rewritten the story of his career in less than five months, and few teams can match the Vikings’ perimeter firepower.
Darnold has had a 100-plus passer rating in 12 of 15 games. Darnold threw 10 interceptions in the first nine games. Not unlike Green Bay’s Jordan Love, he’s thrown just one in the past six.
Jefferson is No. 1 in NFL history in receiving yards per game. This season, he’s second with 1,387 yards and fourth with 10 receiving touchdowns.
While Green Bay’s defense rebounded from the loss at Detroit by allowing just one touchdown the last two games, Minnesota’s offense is rolling, too.
The last six games, Darnold has thrown 15 touchdowns and just one interception. Jefferson and Jordan Addison are averaging a combined 177.3 receiving yards per game with a total of 11 touchdowns. During that span, Darnold is 29-of-38 with 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions in the red zone.
Jefferson and Addison are an elite tandem of receivers, Aaron Jones has almost 1,400 total yards and tight end T.J. Hockenson, who was coming back from a torn ACL when the Vikings beat the Packers in Week 4, has 34 receptions in eight games since returning to the lineup.
Jefferson, though, is the real game-breaker. His 7,069 receiving yards are the most for a player in his first five seasons in NFL history. His 26 receptions of 20-plus yards are six more than any other player and only two fewer than the entire Giants roster. On passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield, he’s third with 13 receptions, second with 483 yards and fourth with four touchdowns, according to PFF.
“Justin is a unique mover as far as some of the things he can do transitioning out of routes – sometimes full speed – and makes cuts that a lot of guys can’t do,” Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said this week.
In Jefferson’s last two home games against the Packers with his starting quarterback, he caught eight passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns in 2021 and nine receptions for 184 yards and two touchdowns in 2022.
However, against Seattle, the Packers held the formidable Metcalf to three catches for 28 yards.
“They’re playing really well as a team overall,” Phillips said. “There’s not a lot of blowouts in this league, especially this year with all the close games – I think a record – but they’re playing well on both sides. Defensively, strong up front. Safeties (are) really good players, I know Jaire’s hurt, but the other corners have done a really nice job. Always have loved Nixon as the nickel. So, they’ve got a lot of weapons on their defense.”
Of course, those games by Jefferson came against Joe Barry’s defenses. Since the bye, Green Bay is seventh in opponent passer rating. In the last three games, they’re third.
“I think Jeff Hafley’s done a lot of really good things with their defense,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said. “The brain power of their defensive staff shows up on the tape of how they play, how they disguise, why they’re doing certain things that they do. It’s impressive on that side of the ball what they have navigated.”
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The #Packers and #Vikings will meet in a heavyweight showdown on Sunday.
Here are three reasons why the Packers will win: https://t.co/ctmXGA2Tlt
And three reasons why they will lose: https://t.co/DPOGu2RCon
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) December 28, 2024
Big matchups: Josh Jacobs, Aaron Jones, top defenses | Big matchups: Jordan Love vs. Brian Flores | Three reasons why Packers will lose to Vikings | Three reasons why Packers will beat Vikings | Packers elevate Minneapolis native | Josh Jacobs rewards linemen | Packers-Vikings final injury report | Time for excuses is over | A must-win game? | NFC North power rankings | Historic Packers-Vikings point spread | Packers-Vikings Thursday injury report; Jaire Alexander update | Packers-Vikings: Matchups | Consensus NFL Power Rankings | Packers-Saints Overreactions | Offense hitting stride at right time
When it comes to the debate between LSU wide receiver Justin Jefferson and Ohio State defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, the comparison may seem a bit unusual. However, both individuals have made a significant impact in the world of college football.Justin Jefferson, a standout wide receiver for the LSU Tigers, has been a key player in their successful season. Known for his dynamic playmaking abilities and impressive route running, Jefferson has been a favorite target for quarterback Joe Burrow. With his speed and agility, he has been able to make big plays and help lead LSU to victory in several games.
On the other hand, Jeff Hafley has made a name for himself as a top defensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Under his leadership, the Buckeyes have had one of the top-ranked defenses in the country, shutting down opposing offenses and helping lead the team to an undefeated record. Hafley’s strategic coaching and ability to develop players have been instrumental in Ohio State’s success this season.
So, who would come out on top in a hypothetical matchup between Justin Jefferson and Jeff Hafley? It’s hard to say for sure, as they operate in different roles on the field. However, one thing is certain – both Jefferson and Hafley are incredibly talented individuals who have made a lasting impact on college football this season.
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