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Friday Sports Buzz 10-23

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John Denney has played for six Dolphins coaches, beginning with Nick Saban. So what’s the most unusual thing interim coach Dan Campbell has done, compared to everybody else Denney played for?

“Everything,” the veteran long-snapper said Thursday.

Several of Campbell’s creative touches --- which led Ryan Tannehill to say this is the most fun he has ever had at practice --- have been well-chronicled, including a tug-of-war competition and Thursday’s decision to have the offense wear black jerseys because it got the better of the defense in practice on Wednesday.

“Ninety-five percent of them love it,” Campbell said of those jerseys. “It doesn’t match, but we’re men and it’s not that big a deal... We did it with Tony [Sparano].”

But Campbell has done other unique things that haven’t been reported. Among them:

### He likes non-monetary incentives. Last week, the defensive players who forced a turnover in practice had their names placed in a hat and became eligible to receive a parking spot close to the chartered plane for the Tennessee game.

### Last week, if the offense won the practice, the defensive players were required to carry the offensive players’ pads off the field. It was reversed if the defense won. One player said he hadn’t done anything like that since high school.

### Campbell had offensive and defensive linemen run receiver routes against each other; and a few players kicked field goals against each other, with Ndamukong Suh (a former soccer player) beating Jarvis Landry.

The point to all of this? It keeps players interested, engaged and competitive.

“It’s a long season and you’ve got to make it fun,” Olivier Vernon said. “He does that. It’s a great tactic.”

Said Denney: “At this level, you are competitive by nature and he brings that to the surface. Stupid little games make guys compete. The parking spot is huge.”

Joe Philbin (and UM’s Al Golden, for that matter) are big on slogans; Philbin hung them all over the Dolphins facility (Stronger Together, etc), and UM – under Golden – pasted inspirational quotes from Golden, Bill Belichick, Rick Pitino and others near urinals, sinks, hallways, etc.

Campbell? Not so much. He ripped down slogans and instead installed TVs which replay highlights from practice (including the tug of war) and game highlights of Dolphins players and Michael Jordan. As one player said, Campbell has struck the right chord with everything he has done.

CHATTER

### Campbell said Thursday he won’t meddle with his coordinators. “Every once in a while, I may have an idea; I’ll give them my opinion. Last thing they need is me looking over their shoulder.”…

Campbell said he “written down scenarios” and watched other teams to brush up on potential clock-management decisions. Every Thursday night, Philbin watched the end of close games from the previous Sunday for pointers.

### New defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo ditched predecessor Kevin Coyle’s approach of splitting middle linebacker snaps between Kelvin Sheppard and Zach Vigil because Anarumo said Sheppard has emerged as “one of the leaders of the defense [and] did a great job of communicating pre-snap.”

### Dallas Thomas, rated 98th of 103 guards by Pro Football Focus, remains an issue; offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said there was “inconsistency” from him Sunday after he graded out best on the team in interior runs the previous four weeks. Plus, he has allowed among the most quarterback hurries of any guard in the league, according to PFF.

General manager Dennis Hickey mentioned this summer that tackle Jason Fox was an option at guard, but Fox said he has received no practice snaps there recently. So the Dolphins, for now, are sticking with Thomas.
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I love what Campbell is doing. Let the guys have fun and build the team chemistry.

Interesting little tidbit about Fox might be a future option at guard if Dallas doesn't play well. Not sure how Fox would fair at guard
 
Considering the dramatic shift in scheme from one game to the next Campbell may be underplaying his influence on the coordinators.

What I admire so much about what Campbell's doing is that there was no hesitation. He's constantly injecting energy and ideas. He has a vision of how things should be and wasted no time in implementing it. It's effective because he does it with conviction. He's not settling for being a placeholder interim coach. Tougher times will come and I'm very curious how he's going to handle it. But I have faith in his ability to handle it and I'm all in on Coach Campbell.
 
General manager Dennis Hickey mentioned this summer that tackle Jason Fox was an option at guard, but Fox said he has received no practice snaps there recently. So the Dolphins, for now, are sticking with Thomas.

Forever and ever...
 
Mogwai said:
Considering the dramatic shift in scheme from one game to the next Campbell may be underplaying his influence on the coordinators.

What I admire so much about what Campbell's doing is that there was no hesitation. He's constantly injecting energy and ideas. He has a vision of how things should be and wasted no time in implementing it. It's effective because he does it with conviction. He's not settling for being a placeholder interim coach. Tougher times will come and I'm very curious how he's going to handle it. But I have faith in his ability to handle it and I'm all in on Coach Campbell.
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I'm afraid Mike Tannebaum is set on replacing him. Unless Campbell makes the playoffs he is gone IMO
 
nick1 said:
I'm afraid Mike Tannebaum is set on replacing him. Unless Campbell makes the playoffs he is gone IMO
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Everyone should be rooting like hell for the rest of the year to work out. Because if not, worst case scenario may happen where Tannenbaum grabs all the power kicks out Campbell and Hickey to stock the team w his jests cronies. That's my nightmare scenario so absolutely I'm hoping the rest of this year works out.
 
What really stuck out to me was John Denney having played for 6 different coaches in his Dolphins career.....smfh
 
All this hype and hoopla have after one game just has me nervous. If wins don't come with this practice changes, how fun is it going to be reading 3-10 Dolphins playing tug of war in practice, 3-10 dolphins coach has no say in coordinator gameplans, etc.

All this is fun if there are wins. Wins solve everything. Fingers crossed.


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Dan Campbell has " It", or if he doesn't now, he's working his way there. IF he continues building this teams confidence and aggression, it would be a shame if we let him go. Think young Cowher. Someone we wanted badly a few years ago.

I like Dan being studious. Running things past coordinators, but not insisting on them. Also, brushing up on game management. The dude's impressive and we could have something special here. Again, it's not just Dan. He is a people person with his players and his coordinators. Surrounding himself with knowledgeable people for a honest to good ness team win, is better than one man demanding this coordinator stay or that one stay. That's not evolving. We are now evolving into who we want to be.

---------- Post added at 10:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:57 PM ----------
Despacio said:
All this hype and hoopla have after one game just has me nervous. If wins don't come with this practice changes, how fun is it going to be reading 3-10 Dolphins playing tug of war in practice, 3-10 dolphins coach has no say in coordinator gameplans, etc.

All this is fun if there are wins. Wins solve everything. Fingers crossed.


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The future is not guaranteed sir, however, we are able to HOPE again.
 
I really hope Dan Campbell emerges and keeps the job.
 
nick1 said:
I'm afraid Mike Tannebaum is set on replacing him. Unless Campbell makes the playoffs he is gone IMO
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these next three games will tell us about Campbell and Phins. @NE, Buff and Phily.
To me this is the season.
 
god bless Dan Campebll, one man battling against the odds against the tide of darkness that is Tannenbaum and Mangini.

God bless you Dan, I for one am all in
 
Despacio said:
All this hype and hoopla have after one game just has me nervous. If wins don't come with this practice changes, how fun is it going to be reading 3-10 Dolphins playing tug of war in practice, 3-10 dolphins coach has no say in coordinator gameplans, etc.

All this is fun if there are wins. Wins solve everything. Fingers crossed.


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Exactly... People around here are really setting themselves up to be let down. Campbell is doing things differently, in part, because he lacks experience to do things like other more seasoned coaches. He compensates by "not looking over assistant shoulders" or watching over teams to see what to do.

Being different is fine, but people have put Campbell on such a high pedestal, the fall could be bad. People did the same thing with their expectations of this team before the season.. I guess it's just the way of fin fans.
 
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