Joe DeCamillis

Longtime NFL special teams coach Joe DeCamillis was named as the Gamecocks’ associate head coach/special teams coordinator on Jan. 29, 2024.

DeCamillis spent the 2023 season on Steve Sarkisian’s staff at the University of Texas where he served as a special assistant to the head coach while sharing ideas and analysis of the Longhorns’ special teams units with special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jeff Banks.

Texas ranked 20th in the country in special teams efficiency in 2023, according to ESPN analytics. The Longhorns tied for 10th in the nation with three blocked kicks, ranked 11th in the nation with a 15.9-yard punt return average and 16th in the country with a net punting average of 41.8 yards. The Longhorns won the Big 12 title and advanced to the College Football Playoffs in DeCamillis lone season in Austin.

Prior to his stint at UT, DeCamillis spent the previous 34 years in the NFL including 32 as a special teams coach. He helped lead his squad to seven AFC or NFC Championship Game appeaerances and four Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl titles with the Denver Broncos in 2015 and the Los Angeles Rams in 2021.

DeCamillis began his NFL career as an administrative assistant for his father-in-law, then Denver Broncos head coach Dan Reeves, a former Gamecock football standout. DeCamillis was promoted to a position on Reeves’ coaching staff in 1991 as a special teams assistant and spent two years in that post with the Broncos.

DeCamillis continued to work for Coach Reeves as a special teams coach for the New York Giants from 1993-96 and the Atlanta Falcons from 1997-2003. After Reeves’ departure, DeCamillis remained on the Falcons’ staff through the 2006 season. He has also served as the special teams coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2007-08), and as the special teams coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys (2009-12), Chicago Bears (2013-14), Denver Broncos (2015-16), Jacksonville Jaguars (2017-20) and Los Angeles Rams (2021-22). He also held the title of Assistant Head Coach while with the Bears.

On Oct. 13, 2016, DeCamillis served as the interim head coach for Denver’s game against the San Diego Chargers while Gary Kubiak was recovering from an illness. The Broncos dropped a 21-13 decision in his head coaching debut.

Born June 29, 1965, and raised in Arvada, Colo. where he was an all-state quarterback and wrestler, DeCamillis did not play football in college. He wrestled for the University of Wyoming where he was a two-time All-Western Athletic Conference performer and an All-American after placing eighth at the 1988 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.

DeCamillis and his wife, Dana, have two children, Caitlin and Ashley, and four grandchildren, Decker, Annabelle, Brooks and Reeves.