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.”
