Former UK standout Wan'Dale Robinson, right, wants to help Javeon Campbell any way he can with his recruiting process. (Western Hills Football Photo)
Javeon Campbell did not know a lot of football history when Western Hills coach Simon Vanderpool persuaded him to join the football team last year but a lot of people know about him now. Not only has the 6-5, 260-pound defensive lineman been ranked as the state’s top player by one recruiting service, but he’s also now a top 200 player nationally.
If that’s not enough, he’s already been invited to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl after playing just one year of high school football.
“He is going to be better this year just because he is actually watching football now,” Vanderpool said. “We went to Auburn for a visit and they showed him Cam Newton’s Heisman Trophy and he had no clue who he was. At Alabama, he had no clue about (running back) Derrick Henry.”
Henry also won the Heisman Trophy and a national championship like Newton did. Both have also been successful NFL players.
“He really had not even watched football before,” Vanderpool said. “If you saw film of him last year he was just competing but he really did not know what he was doing.”
One current NFL player that Campbell does know is Wan’Dale Robinson, a record-setting performer at Western Hills and then Nebraska and Kentucky. He now plays with the New York Giants.
“Wan’Dale, you see him in the NFL, but he is such an incredible young man,” the Western Hills coach said. “They have been talking. The last time Wan’Dale was in town he said to hook me up with Javeon because he wanted to help mentor him and help through the (recruiting) process any way he can.
“Wan’Dale came back for our alumni night last year and talked to the team. He is such an incredible human being himself and it has been special to see those two connect with each other. Being from the same schools is special but their personalities and how good they both are really makes it cool to see.”
2 Responses
UK has the inside track the HS FB coach and with Wan’dale having starred at the same HS in KY and then being a key to the UK offense as a playmaker & now successful in the NFL. Can’t ask for a better set of dominoes perfectly aligned to end up at UK.
As good as the Stoops-Marrow-White recruiting combo had proven to be, I think it looks very favorable for UK to land this rapidly rising star!
The start (and continuation) of a very good FB season will yield big dividends if UK shows signs of regrouping into the quality team which win 10 games with Levis & Coen & many others on both sides of the ball.
It may be a lot more than a long shot, but if UK NIL $ gets big contributions, it would be more than a dream come true to see BIG Deonne Walker as a Senior AND Campbell on the DL forming one of the best 2 DL players of not the 2 BEST DL in the nation. AND… a 2nd year with the same awesome QB would propel UK to another level.
Sure would be nice to see UK BB – AND – UK BB rising to national prominence at the same time! It reminds me of when UK had the potential to have 2 great programs with Pitino and Mummie (one of the greatest offensive minds in college FB).
I would love to get Campbell and Spike. We need to keep them in the state. If we can sign both of them then we are going to have another top 25 class coming in.