COLUMBIA, S.C. — In more than 30 years working as a special teams coordinator in the NFL, Joe DeCamillis was fortunate to win a pair of Super Bowls. One with the Broncos came in the 2015 season at the expense of the Carolina Panthers, while his second championship came during his stint with the Rams.
In 2023, DeCamillis took his career into the college game as he worked as a special assistant to the head coach at Texas. After one season working for Steve Sarkisian, DeCamillis has decided to stay in the college game and that has brought him to Columbia where he is working as the Gamecocks' new special teams coordinator/associate head coach.
He replaces Pete Lembo who is now the head coach at the University at Buffalo.
As far as what intrigues him about the college game, it's the relationships with his fellow coaches and the players.
"In the NFL, it’s business. Right? It’s a business. Let’s be honest, it’s a business," DeCamillis said Friday at his introductory news conference.
"It’s not in college football. It’s about making that player not only better as a player but as a person. That was very intriguing to me at this time in my career and in this time of my life."
The son-in-law of former Gamecock great and NFL head coach Dan Reeves, DeCamillis told a story about his late father-in-law that encapsulates his feeling about working with the college kids.
“I had a young man come up to me who is gonna be heckuva player at Texas. He came up to me and said, ‘Hey, Joe D. Come here, man.’ I said, ‘What?’ I thought he was in trouble or something. And he said, ‘I don’t know how to tie a tie.’ I said, ‘Wow.’ Well, you know who taught me how to tie a tie? It was Coach Reeves.”