Quoth the Raven – New offensive coordinator brings NFL experience to LSU

He’s 52, a coach’s son who boasts that he’s been calling plays since he was 15.

In LSU’s case, first-year offensive coordinator Cam Cameron will be doing it for an offense that at times the past couple of years seemed to have lost its way.

But this is not just any new assistant coach.

No, this is a longtime friend of Les Miles who shared a tiny office with him at Michigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Cameron has an impressive resume that includes being the head coach of the Miami Dolphins in 2007.

“He understands offensive football so well,” Miles says. “He will really progress us, without question.”

Off the field, you couldn’t meet a guy who makes a better first impression. On it, he’s said to be a tough, no-nonsense, get-after-it guy who knows that faster and crisper practices are better practices. And while many of his fundamentals were formed decades ago, learned from such legendary football names as Ernie Zampese, John Robinson, Don Coryell and Bo Schembechler, Cameron also embraces the future. Video games, he says, are helping to produce better quarterbacks.

“There are more great quarterback minds out there than at any time in the history of our country,” he says. “And these kids are multi-taskers. They can run, throw and catch. Now you have smart guys who can run and throw accurately.”

LSU fans hope that will include senior Zach Mettenberger, who last year guided the Tigers to a 10-3 finish, a quality slate in most respects but neither a national championship nor a league title in the über-competitive Southeastern Conference.

When Cameron got the job last spring, the first thing he did was meet every offensive player on the LSU team, “from top to bottom,” starting with the quarterbacks.

“I wanted to meet Zach right away.”

There are those who think that Cameron was brought in solely to mentor Mettenberger, who was brilliant, looking ready for the NFL, or else completely overwhelmed and on the run.

Cameron knew exactly what he was getting into.

“I watch LSU football,” he says. “I always watch Les’s games. I would invariably text him right after the game. He’s had some crazy games the last eight years.”

Ya think?

The good news is, according to Cameron, “I was very familiar with Zach, the running backs, the tight ends, the offensive line. If you’re a pro coach, you know all about LSU players. You’re going to be evaluating their tape all year because they’re all going to be prospects.”

Last year was also a wild one for Cameron. He’s from Terre Haute, Ind., where his stepfather was the coach at Indiana State and where, as an adolescent, he first caught the coaching bug.

Cameron played football and basketball at Indiana and then began a coaching career at Michigan, where he stayed nearly a decade.

In 1994, he was hired by the Washington Redskins, went back to the college game as head coach at his alma mater, and then returned to the NFL, where he was offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers before replacing Nick Saban as head coach at Miami.

From 2008 to the middle of last season, he was the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens before being fired in December.

“I was not blindsided,” he says honestly.

The Ravens went on to win the Super Bowl and sent Cameron his own Super Bowl ring earlier this summer.

“A lot of interesting things happen in sports,” Cameron says matter-of-factly. “But one thing about a great organization is that a great organization is built so they can survive without anyone or any one person. There are a whole set of circumstances that I’m not going to go into that I understood.”

It was hardly his first setback. Cameron is also a cancer survivor, having learned at age 28 that he had melanoma. He found out, oddly enough, when Schembechler noticed what turned out to be a malignant growth on his back while the coaches were taking a post-practice shower.

“Basically, Bo Schembechler saved my life,” he says. “It would have gotten me within the next two years, they said.” Cameron has served as a melanoma spokesperson for the NFL, and it’s no surprise there were three bottles of sunscreen on his desk at LSU this summer.

Getting fired? Struggling on offense?

“You truly take every day as a blessing,” he says. “There’s nothing that gets you. Once you go through that experience, truthfully, no matter what happens, it gives you the ability to get up the next day and say thank you for the day and move forward. And that’s a gift.”

Last spring, after Cameron had a few NFL interviews and took some down time, Miles offered his old friend the job, moving Greg Studrawa back to his post as offensive line coach after two seasons also handling the offensive coordinator role.

“This place here does not take a back seat to the Ravens at all,” Cameron says.

He speaks glowingly of Mettenberger, the stable of Tigers running backs and the potential of LSU’s offense overall, both as individual players and as a unit. Asked about his philosophy, it’s clear he believes—like Miles—you have to be able to run, but also need to throw effectively and often.

“The end zone is down there,” he says. “Get there.”

As for Miles, he says Cameron is a perfect fit.

“I know philosophically I won’t have any issues with him,” Miles says. “He’s just what we need.”