Injury doesnt slow Campbell down

PALO ALTO, Calif. – If NIKE was giving out an award for the most physically impressive player at Saturday's NIKE Training Camp at Stanford the award easily would have gone to Norco, Calif., linebacker Jordan Campbell.

The 5-foot-11 ½, 226-pound inside linebacker was built like nobody else with an amazing upper body and a frame that could allow him to play a number of different positions in college.

He had a good day at the camp and felt like even though he was banged up after an injury earlier in the week that he impressed many of the more than 250 college coaches on hand.

"I felt about 75 percent," Campbell said. "I just wish I would have been 100 percent. I pulled my groin earlier this week at a camp on Wednesday and that's just when it really got messed up. I felt if I was 100 percent, I would have done better in my 40 and my shuttle. It was just hard to plant. I did all right in the bench and the vertical and I won every time in the one-on-ones.

"I banged the big guys, and I was able to muscle the guys around. I was able to get right up in the face of the running backs and stay with them. I think I did all right. You just have to come out there and compete."

And compete he did. But that's nothing new for Campbell. He's been doing this since he was 8-years old, playing football with guys like Anaheim Servite stars and USC commitments Chris Galippo and D.J. Shoemate.

"It feels like I'm always two steps ahead of the offense," Campbell said. "There isn't an offense I haven't seen. I can predict what they're going to do before the snap. I can tell by the offensive line how they're lined up if they're going to down block. When the ball snaps, I'm already in the backfield."

One college coach said Campbell is the ultimate downhill linebacker and he doesn't disagree with that statement.

"Everything is backdoor, if I see a gap, I'm flying upfield," he said. "I make a lot of tackles because of that. If I hit the running back they're going down."

What's been going up is Campbell's scholarship offers. As of Saturday, he had offers from Minnesota, Baylor, UConn and New Mexico. Arizona State, Arizona and Boise State told him they would be by school on Monday to see more film on him and possibly talk to his coach about a scholarship offer.

"I'm starting to really get excited about what might happen," Campbell said. "USC told me they're looking at me as a fullback, and the other schools really think I'm a very good linebacker. I think I showed that to a lot of people today. I just wish I was 100 percent, but even if I wasn't I think I impressed a lot of people."