Michigan Football: Breaking down the loss of Anthony Campanile
The Michigan football program got some bad news Wednesday as Anthony Campanile decided to leave the Wolverines for the NFL. Here’s what it means.
After weeks of dealing with the possibility that Anthony Campanile may leave, Michigan football finally seemed to have its linebackers coach safe in hand earlier this week, when Rutgers decided to go in a different direction at defensive coordinator.
According to The Michigan Insider ($), Campanile even signed a new contract with Michigan football this week. But when, the New York Giants called and Harbaugh, via Sam Webb, denied permission. The news of the hire was first reported by the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Another interesting hire for Brian Flores from the college ranks: The #Dolphins are hiring #Michigan LBs coach Anthony Campanile for a position coach job on the defense, source said. He was Boston College’s co-DC in 2018.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 16, 2020
Yet, the Dolphins were also interested and while it’s unclear exactly what happened, there was no stopping Campanile from heading to the NFL, where he will coach in Miami as an assistant.
Obviously, the loss is a blow to the Wolverines and trying to say otherwise just isn’t true. Campanile was a really solid coach that had made a good impression, both as a football guy and on the recruiting trail.
He was key in helping land Jordan Morant and with Chris Partridge leaving for Ole Miss, he was going to be essential to keeping that pipeline to New Jersey. Certainly, with Don Brown, there are ties to the Northeast, but the connection to New Jersey especially won’t be as strong.
Despite mentioning a contact, Webb didn’t report if Campanile got a promotion. A raise seems obvious but he was viewed by some as a potential replacement for Brown as DC.
The loss now leaves head coach Jim Harbaugh with two assistant openings and one that he believed he had locked up just days ago.
Yet, the Wolverines have been through this before, in fact, plenty of times under Harbaugh. He has done an exceptional job of finding coaching talent and his recent hires of Josh Gattis, Ed Warriner and Shaun Nua are great examples of that. Campanile was too as he was hired last offseason to replace the departed Al Washington.
As a former co-defensive coordinator at Boston College, Campanile is a bright mind and he could have helped fill the void in the secondary left by Partridge leaving. Now, Michigan needs a safeties coach, someone to coach special teams and linebackers.
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But the bigger hit comes on the recruiting trail and that puts pressure on Harbaugh to make a recruiting-centric hire when he fills at least one of his two openings.