Florida State's practice facility is very much a compound. There's tall fencing everywhere, and security guards are present each afternoon to make sure no one is taking an unauthorized peek at practice.
Students walking by might hear pads colliding and coaches yelling. Occasionally, there is one voice that rings louder than even that of Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher. It belongs to video coordinator Craig Campanozzi.
Campanozzi, who is known throughout the program for being the "eye in the sky," is the Seminoles' longtime video coordinator. Perched atop a tower at one end of the FSU practice fields, Campanozzi takes a unique approach to recording the Seminoles' workouts.
Sometimes his screaming has practical purposes, such as when he shouts, "Two minutes!" during each practice period to let the coaches know how much time they have before moving onto the next segment. Sometimes it is to provide motivation, like when he screams at star players before contact drills that it's, "Time to take your medicine!"
Campanozzi, who is known around FSU athletics as "Campo," also is the man responsible for displaying a hurricane warning flag at practice each year during Miami week. The flag was flying high above the Seminoles' practice fields again this year.
"When I walked on the field, I was like, 'What the heck?'" Fisher said, recalling the first time he saw Campo's flag at a practice. "Then it dawned on me. It's a hurricane [flag]. Then it dawns on you who you're playing and what goes on and what he's got out there."
The banner is an actual hurricane warning flag; it drapes over the fence on the south end of the practice facility.
Campanozzi wastes little time hoisting the flag each year. Immediately after FSU's 37-35 loss to North Carolina last Saturday, he posted it so that coaches and players would be given an extra reminder of what's at stake when they came back to campus on Sunday.
No. 23 FSU (3-2) has gone through a rocky start to 2016 while No. 10 Miami (4-0) is enjoying one of its best starts in recent memory. The Seminoles have won the last six games in the series, although the Hurricanes are favored to win when they play at 8 p.m. Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
* Also Read: Matchup Analysis for Saturday's FSU-Miami football game
FSU has flown the hurricane flag at practice for the last 15 years, and it actually goes back to the school's former video coordinator, Billy Vizzini.
Campanozzi and Vizzini, who were close friends, formed a friendship at the time with Miami's video coordinator, Stewart Cramer. The bond also extended to Florida's then-video coordinator, Campanozzi said.
"In the '90s, those three teams were usually involved in the [national] championship, and when they would go to [work] conferences and sit together, people would be surprised," Campanozzi recalled. "They told them, 'We're not making tackles, we're friends.' But on game day, it's game day."
And the videographers wanted to do their part by motivating their respective teams.
Cramer, who is now with the Philadelphia Eagles, would blare the "Warchant" at Miami practices. In turn, Vizzini would put up the hurricane warning flag in Tallahassee.
Although the flag serves as a reminder for Miami week, it also is another remembrance of Vizzini. The former FSU staffer died of cancer in 2007. He was 36 years old.
"He was very young," Campanozzi said. "One of the people who came to see Billy was Stew. Stew has been texting me all week and still keeps in touch."
Campanozzi has been at FSU for nearly 20 years, and his antics go well beyond the flag.
Rob Wilson, the university's associate director of athletics communication, said there were days when Campanozzi would wear the helmet of FSU's weekly opponent to motivate the players.
"They'd get one of our old helmets and paint it to look like a Miami helmet," Wilson said. "Or paint it to look like Auburn or whoever. A lot of the time, it was the same helmet every week. They'd just paint over it. Like anything really good, it was organic."
Although his pranks have gotten on the nerves of a player or two through the years, redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Alec Eberle said Campanozzi's efforts make it clear how much he cares about the program.
Eberle said Campanozzi is always on campus or close by. If there's something wrong with the film equipment or if the doors to the film room are locked, he said Campanozzi will come right away to help out the players.
"He's always the guy busting his tail to make sure his guys are in position," Eberle said. "The guy has lived across the street from the stadium his whole career. He comes back and forth and works non-stop. He's always doing things for the team."
------------------------------------
Talk about this story with other Florida State fans in The Tribal Council
