Campbell on taking lead in RT competition, Barry

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Stefan Adams

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As the season opener approaches in 10 days, the Miami Hurricanes are getting closer to resolving the many position battles that have been raging since the spring. One such area of interest has been at right tackle, where redshirt freshman John Campbell has been competing for a starting role.

“I feel like it’s a good competition. I just come in here with a mindset every day to just work and get better,” Campbell said. “These days are ticking down and you can’t afford to lose a day. You really got to come in and try to improve on at least one thing every day and just get better. That’s from a team standpoint, a player standpoint, and even for the coaches.”

Although he started the fall on the second team behind sophomore Kai-Leon Herbert, Campbell progressed his way to first team last week and has held steady in UM’s starting 5 on the OL since.

“It’s been my consistency,” Campbell said of why he was elevated. “I come into work every day and I just try to help everybody out. I ask questions and it pretty much started transitioning to the field.”

Campbell has practiced at both guard and tackle in his short Miami career, but says he does prefer tackle.

“Guard, you’re pretty much on the inside, and you have help everywhere,” Campbell said. “Tackle you have to be alone sometimes, and I like 1-on-1 matchups.”

Even though the coaches have told the O-Line that the starting 5 is not yet set, Campbell feels the group that has been mainly taking first team snaps has a chance to gel and become something special.

“We don’t really have a final five right now, but the people that’s up right now, I feel like we’re doing a pretty good job,” Campbell said. “We still got some stuff to touch up on, everybody makes mistakes every day, but I feel like we’re doing a pretty good job right now. Corey (Gaynor), he’s making a great case, is doing what he can. And then we got Vaughn (Donaldson) up there, Vaughn’s a vet, been there for a minute. Zion (Nelson), (DJ) Scaife, we’re all a team.”

UM has a new offensive line coach in 2019 in Butch Barry, who came over from the Tamp Bay Buccaneers to change the culture in the O-Line room and bring what has been an underwhelming group back to respectability. Although Campbell said it took some time to adjust to Barry’s coaching style, he feels the new techniques the O-Line is learning is having lasting effects on the players.

“I’ve seen big improvements since he’s been here,” Campbell said of Barry. “Guys taking risks and everybody learning to trust everybody. Coach Barry came in with a different mindset, different drills, from a different atmosphere - he came from Tampa. He’s really a teacher, he has a different way to instill things into his players. We came from the spring and we were all confused, because he came in with different techniques and everything. Everyone was wondering like ‘Wow, what is this?’ But then we really started to trust it, he showed us it worked, and we’ve stuck with it and we’re improving every single day.”

Starting this week, Miami began prep for the Florida Gators game on August 24th. Watching the Gator’s defensive line on film, Campbell feels there’s not much difference from the guys he matches up against everyday on Greentree.

“I’ve been seeing pretty much what we see every day in practice – big, fast, twitch, everything,” Campbell said of UF. “Greg (Rousseau), (Jon) Garvin, Scott (Patchan), they’re all tall, they have an advantage with long arms, they’re fast, they have power. You have to always come with your ‘A’ game because you don’t know what they’re going to bring that play.”

What are his goals for the 2019 season?

“I’d like to be an All-American,” Campbell said. “Just trying to work and trying to be a team player. One day, I’d like to be a captain on this team.”
 
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Sad that Herbert and the rest of the OTs got beat out by a RSF and a true freshman for the starting spots.
On going competition for Campbell and Herbert but he seems like has the inside track.
 
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Love Campbell's upside, he's a prototype RT at 6'6 310lbs with long arms & can move.

He just needs time for it all to click together, but what stands out about him is his natural strength, he's not getting bullied & can anchor. Technique is still being refined, but as the season progresses he should settle in at that spot.

Once Zion, Big Vaughn, Gaynor, Scaife & Campbell all gel they can be a very solid cohesive unit. One thing I'm confident on is we'll see an improvement on run blocking from this group, pass blocking we'll see, but I believe our run game will look much better in Enos system & with Coach Barry teaching these guys.
 
Love Campbell's upside, he's a prototype RT at 6'6 310lbs with long arms & can move.

He just needs time for it all to click together, but what stands out about him is his natural strength, he's not getting bullied & can anchor. Technique is still being refined, but as the season progresses he should settle in at that spot.

Once Zion, Big Vaughn, Gaynor, Scaife & Campbell all gel they can be a very solid cohesive unit. One thing I'm confident on is we'll see an improvement on run blocking from this group, pass blocking we'll see, but I believe our run game will look much better in Enos system & with Coach Barry teaching these guys.
Great post brother. All there is to do now is put him on the field while the bullets are flying.

We’ve got some potential bookends for our future.
 
Love Campbell's upside, he's a prototype RT at 6'6 310lbs with long arms & can move.

He just needs time for it all to click together, but what stands out about him is his natural strength, he's not getting bullied & can anchor. Technique is still being refined, but as the season progresses he should settle in at that spot.

Once Zion, Big Vaughn, Gaynor, Scaife & Campbell all gel they can be a very solid cohesive unit. One thing I'm confident on is we'll see an improvement on run blocking from this group, pass blocking we'll see, but I believe our run game will look much better in Enos system & with Coach Barry teaching these guys.

Yep.

The inside running game will be a lot better with the guards and center. Also I expect bigger holes and more explosive runs with all the eye candy Enos uses. All the motion will slow down the ends coming off the edge.
 
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For the OL experts out there...

Can Zion and Campbell, size aside, really hold up to DEs a few years older with growth and maturity at this point in their careers?

Speaks volumes these young men are pushing/beating out last year's incumbents...
 
I think it was either Coach Macho or Prop Joe when he came out of HS that said Herbert would never play a down of OT at UM. He was a guard all the way.

I think we all went into this offseason hoping it would be Campbell-Donaldson-Gaynor-Scaife-Kennedy come Aug 24th. . I just don't think we ever thought it would be Zion Nelson and that Kennedy would be **** near on the scout team. Smh. It is what it is.
 
As the season opener approaches in 10 days, the Miami Hurricanes are getting closer to resolving the many position battles that have been raging since the spring. One such area of interest has been at right tackle, where redshirt freshman John Campbell has been competing for a starting role.

“I feel like it’s a good competition. I just come in here with a mindset every day to just work and get better,” Campbell said. “These days are ticking down and you can’t afford to lose a day. You really got to come in and try to improve on at least one thing every day and just get better. That’s from a team standpoint, a player standpoint, and even for the coaches.”

Although he started the fall on the second team behind sophomore Kai-Leon Herbert, Campbell progressed his way to first team last week and has held steady in UM’s starting 5 on the OL since.

“It’s been my consistency,” Campbell said of why he was elevated. “I come into work every day and I just try to help everybody out. I ask questions and it pretty much started transitioning to the field.”

Campbell has practiced at both guard and tackle in his short Miami career, but says he does prefer tackle.

“Guard, you’re pretty much on the inside, and you have help everywhere,” Campbell said. “Tackle you have to be alone sometimes, and I like 1-on-1 matchups.”

Even though the coaches have told the O-Line that the starting 5 is not yet set, Campbell feels the group that has been mainly taking first team snaps has a chance to gel and become something special.

“We don’t really have a final five right now, but the people that’s up right now, I feel like we’re doing a pretty good job,” Campbell said. “We still got some stuff to touch up on, everybody makes mistakes every day, but I feel like we’re doing a pretty good job right now. Corey (Gaynor), he’s making a great case, is doing what he can. And then we got Vaughn (Donaldson) up there, Vaughn’s a vet, been there for a minute. Zion (Nelson), (DJ) Scaife, we’re all a team.”

UM has a new offensive line coach in 2019 in Butch Barry, who came over from the Tamp Bay Buccaneers to change the culture in the O-Line room and bring what has been an underwhelming group back to respectability. Although Campbell said it took some time to adjust to Barry’s coaching style, he feels the new techniques the O-Line is learning is having lasting effects on the players.

“I’ve seen big improvements since he’s been here,” Campbell said of Barry. “Guys taking risks and everybody learning to trust everybody. Coach Barry came in with a different mindset, different drills, from a different atmosphere - he came from Tampa. He’s really a teacher, he has a different way to instill things into his players. We came from the spring and we were all confused, because he came in with different techniques and everything. Everyone was wondering like ‘Wow, what is this?’ But then we really started to trust it, he showed us it worked, and we’ve stuck with it and we’re improving every single day.”

Starting this week, Miami began prep for the Florida Gators game on August 24th. Watching the Gator’s defensive line on film, Campbell feels there’s not much difference from the guys he matches up against everyday on Greentree.

“I’ve been seeing pretty much what we see every day in practice – big, fast, twitch, everything,” Campbell said of UF. “Greg (Rousseau), (Jon) Garvin, Scott (Patchan), they’re all tall, they have an advantage with long arms, they’re fast, they have power. You have to always come with your ‘A’ game because you don’t know what they’re going to bring that play.”

What are his goals for the 2019 season?

“I’d like to be an All-American,” Campbell said. “Just trying to work and trying to be a team player. One day, I’d like to be a captain on this team.”
Thank you Stefan! Another excellent overview! Keep up the great work, and thank you for sharing.
 
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For the OL experts out there...

Can Zion and Campbell, size aside, really hold up to DEs a few years older with growth and maturity at this point in their careers?

Speaks volumes these young men are pushing/beating out last year's incumbents...

Not an expert but if they’re holding their own with our dL they must be decent enough. Supposedly Zion is a country strong ****, already one of the stronger guys on the team.

I think the young tackles will have issues with speed and de that have multiple strong moves. I just don’t see them getting mauled or manhandled, like you’d expect from a Fr.
 
For the OL experts out there...

Can Zion and Campbell, size aside, really hold up to DEs a few years older with growth and maturity at this point in their careers?

Speaks volumes these young men are pushing/beating out last year's incumbents...
If they can hold their own against perhaps the best group of 4 DEs in the country, then they can handle anything anyone else has to offer.
 
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For the OL experts out there...

Can Zion and Campbell, size aside, really hold up to DEs a few years older with growth and maturity at this point in their careers?

Speaks volumes these young men are pushing/beating out last year's incumbents...
Hopefully this bodes well for the future!
 
I think it was either Coach Macho or Prop Joe when he came out of HS that said Herbert would never play a down of OT at UM. He was a guard all the way.

I think we all went into this offseason hoping it would be Campbell-Donaldson-Gaynor-Scaife-Kennedy come Aug 24th. . I just don't think we ever thought it would be Zion Nelson and that Kennedy would be **** near on the scout team. Smh. It is what it is.
Me & gogeta was definitely saying early on Herbert was a Guard.

A lot of the things I been saying on KLH I said last year https://www.canesinsight.com/threads/kai-leon-herbert.135115/page-2

He's always been a Guard, but has to play Tackle out of lack of depth, when we bring in Rivers & if we land Walker for next year wouldn't be shocked one bit if we moved him inside, he would thrive at LG/RG.
 
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