Junior defensive end Calais Campbell, nicknamed “Big Show” by his teammates, sat down with Technician Senior Staff Writer J. Mike Blake at the ACC Media Kickoff in Pinehurst in July. As a sophomore, Campbell was second on the team in sacks (10.5) and third in tackles (80) and was First Team All-ACC.
Technician: When [Miami] was looking for a new head coach, a lot of players got behind Randy Shannon and promoted him for the job. Why the support for Shannon?Campbell: Coach Shannon is a great coach. I think he’s a genius on the field. He knows everything about football. He played on national championship teams; he coached national championship teams. He had the track record, and we saw somebody who had the potential to be a great coach. I feel like so far he’s done a great job with us. He played at “The U,” so he knows what “The U” is about. A lot of different things went into that, made me feel like he was the man for the job.
Technician: There’s a lot of talk about getting back to “The U” swagger. How’s that going, and how are you guys trying to stay out of the headlines this year and win more games?Campbell: It’s going pretty good. I guess swagger means you know you’re going to win. You go out there with attitude, saying, “I’m confident in myself that no matter what happens, I’m prepared to win the game and make something happen.” I feel like we’re developing that confidence again — I definitely feel like the swagger is back.
Technician: You’re a very tall defensive end. How does your height help you because it seems like you would almost lose some leverage being six-foot-eight and playing that position?Campbell: It can either help you or kill you, being that tall. A lot of players like to play real high, and I like to play real high sometimes myself. And it’s tough. I think it helps out a lot because my long arms let me get off my blocks easier and create more separation. I can get in the quarterback’s line of vision, get my hands up in the air. Really, if you use your leverage right, you have an advantage because if you get down to their level [and] play on their level, when you explode you can really come up and get them off their feet. It’s definitely an advantage if you know how to use it.
Technician: Last year you guys were seventh in total defense in the nation, fourth against the run and 13th in scoring [defense]. When you have seven starters returning, what does that do for the confidence of your unit, having so many guys coming back?Campbell: We are extremely confident in our defense. On offense I think we’re starting to develop confidence too, but our defense especially, [since] I’m in the thick of things and see everything going on all the time. On the D-line we have a couple of young guys who have to step up, but everybody has playing experience. The DBs, you know they’re going to be there doing their job, so we don’t want to let them down by giving the quarterback all day to throw, so we pressure a littler harder. They know we’re going to get sacks, so they’re pressing up on them hard. It’s like they told us, “You get pressure. We get interceptions.” We’re confident there won’t be any lapses, and I can play hard and just take care of my job and know they’re going to take care of theirs. It’ll be hard to score on us.
Technician: Has the bar been raised [on defense] since you have so many players coming back?Campbell: Most definitely. We’re trying to do something that’s never been done before, something spectacular. We actually have a team meeting coming up where we’re going to set our goals. One goal I want to personally try to press, I know it’s almost impossible — but we want to try to shut out everybody in the Orange Bowl, which is a big statement. It’s almost hard to say, but I feel like if we play our game, we can make it hard to score a touchdown on us this year. It’s almost impossible, but if we can shoot for that and come close to it, that’d be amazing.
