By LARRY VAUGHT
A year ago Javeon Campbell was best known as a star basketball player at Western Hills High School in Frankfort who was on his way to becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer as a junior. He had joined the football team but had yet to play his first high school game.
Now he’s preparing to start his second football season when Western Hills plays at Bourbon County Aug. 23 and he’s known across the state because he’s not only the state’s No. 1-rated player, but he’s also a Kentucky commit.
“I can’t wait to get back on the field,” said the 6-5, 265-pound Campbell who had 14 1/2 sacks last year. “The last few months have been pretty hectic trying to figure out where to go (to college) and everybody asking about it and talking to all those coaches was crazy.”
Even though he has played just one year of high school football, he turned down offers from Georgia, Alabama, Auburn and many others to play at Kentucky.
“It is crazy to think about that but I am happy with my choice,” Campbell said. “Honestly, I thought when I started playing football I might be looked at by a few colleges and then I could see what I could do with basketball or football. But this has truly been a blessing for me.”
Campbell’s story is more like a fairy tale than reality starting with the day new football coach Simon Vanderpool approached his mother about him playing football after watching him play basketball.
“I used to play (football) but like I took a break and I was like, ’It’s not a bad idea’ because I did like football when I played but it comes with a risk (of injury),” Campbell said. “But once my mother was okay with it and then I started practicing and getting a feel for football again, it was fine.”
Campbell goes into this season as a four-star player and ranked as high as the nation’s 14th best defensive lineman in his recruiting class by On3 and 247Sports. He’s also already been invited to play in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl.
Campbell said anyone who watched him play last season will see a “big difference” in him this season.
“I feel like I’ve gotten way better than I was even last season,” the Western Hills senior said. “I feel stronger, more powerful, more explosive. I feel like it’s gonna be a big improvement from last year.
“I played offense back in middle school so defense was like a whole new thing to me. Just getting back into it, I was learning.”
Campbell joked in middle school he used his size to run over opponents and did not have a lot of finesse to his game as an offensive lineman. Now he’s had to learn to read what opposing offenses are doing and still keep up with the speed of the game to make plays.
He understands there are big expectations on him this season after his scholarship offer list and verbal commitment to Kentucky.
“Everything in practice is about me picking up more and pushing me to my limits,” the UK commit said. “I started working on myself and running every day to become more athletic when I was like an eighth-grader and I think it has paid off.
“I think playing basketball helped me with my footwork that helps me in football work my moves. I know at the next level I will need to use my hands and arms more. Now I just do what I do to make plays but I know I still have a lot to learn.”
He credits Vanderpool for helping him develop so quickly and for convincing his mother that her “baby” would be safe playing football.
“She was kind of nervous going into our first couple of games and worried I would get like a bruise or a scratch but she’s perfectly fine with it now that she knows what I can do on the field,” the Western Hills senior said.
His mother didn’t limit where he could go play college football.
“She just wanted the best for me, so she didn’t really care where I went. She might have had a problem if I had gone far away but she never said so,” Campbell said.
Unlike most highly rated high school football players, Campbell does not plan to enroll early at UK. Instead, he wants to finish his high school basketball career under coach Geoff Cody.
“I just want to enjoy my last year of high school and then just get ready for the next level,” Campbell said. “My (basketball) coach was all for it when I told him I was also going to play football. He actually went to college for football and then he went to basketball, so he understood what I was doing.”
“I still want to finish my last basketball season. I enjoy playing with my team. I want to play another year with them.”
Even though he’s Western Hills’ all-time leading scorer, he’s not a 3-point shooter which is no surprise considering his physical prowess.
“I feel like I have a little bit of finesse with my pump fakes and my spin moves. I feel like it’s a pretty good combination and that athleticism also helps me in football,” Campbell said.
Which athlete with ties to the University of Kentucky had a better Olympics?
Lee Kiefer, a UK College of Medicine third-year student, won her second straight gold medal in foil fencing in Paris and was also part of the first U.S. team to win the gold medal. She is now the most decorated foil fencer in American history and was the first American foil fencer to win an individual Olympic gold medal. She has also competed in four Olympics.
“When you become the only or the first to do anything, you start looking at that person and wonder why that has not been done before and how special that makes them. She is special,” said former UK all-SEC defensive back Van Hiles, who is an avid track fan.
Hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone competed one year at Kentucky where she broke the collegiate record in the 400-meter hurdles and also set the world junior 400-meter dash record. Even before she got to UK she was named the Gatorade National Female Athlete of the Year in 2015–16 and 2016–17, the first time any athlete had won that honor in consecutive years. At age of 17, she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
She qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil and then won gold in the 400 hurdles in Japan in 2021 in a world record time of 51.46 seconds. In Paris, she won again in dominant fashion with a world record time of 50.37 seconds.
ESPN personality Myron Medcalf tried to put what McLaughlin-Levrone did in perspective.
“Let’s be clear. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is even better than you might know. In May, she decided to run the 200m (meter dash) for fun at a meet in LA. She recorded a top-10 time in the world. In June, she entered the 400m. She ran the No. 2 time in the world. And now another 400m hurdles WR (world record in the Olympics),” Medcalf posted on social media.
He also explained that three women who competed in the Olympic semifinals in Paris in the 400-meter dash did not beat McLaughlin-Levrone’s time in the 400 hurdles.
Robert Griffin, the 2011 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback at Baylor, posted that McLaughlin-Levrone was the “greatest female track and field athlete of all time” after she broke the world record for the sixth time at age 25.
Olympic gold medalist alpine skier and seven-time world champion Mikaela Shiffrin posted on social media about the former UK hurdler who has not lost a 400 hurdle race since 2019. She had a hometown track in New Jersey named for her, signed a lucrative deal with New Balance Running and was voted World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year.
McLaughlin-Levrone ran a dominating leg on USA’s 4×400 gold-medal relay team that finished in 3”15:27, the second-fastest time ever and fastest since 1988. McLaughlin-Levrone ran her leg in 47.71 seconds.
“She is just a unicorn and just dominant in the history of her event,” Hiles said.
Kiefer was featured in Vogue magazine and on NBC-TV’s Today Show after her gold-medal performances. She doesn’t have the social media presence of McLaughlin-Levrone and fencing does not draw the national audience. However, she received congratulation messages from numerous UK personalities, including men’s basketball coach Mark Pope.
BYU transfer Jaxson Robinson is expected by many to be Kentucky’s best player for coach Mark Pope this season and he certainly understands how difficult the transition to college basketball can be but he has been impressed by freshman teammate Trent Noah of Harlan County.
“Trent comes in here every day and works before practice and after practice. I see him here working on his game, taking care of his body, treating it like a true professional,” said Robinson.
“I think him being around a lot of older guys is helping him mature super fast. He’s learned the ropes pretty quick and he is gonna be dangerous.”
Robinson started his collegiate career at Texas A&M in 2020-21 and played in 14 games, including four starts. He transferred to Arkansas for his sophomore season and played in 16 games. Robinson spent the next two seasons at BYU under Pope and played in 66 games, including 36 starts. He averaged 11.4 points per game and shot 41 percent from the field, 34.9 percent from 3 and 84 percent at the foul line.
Robinson knows he’s at a different location with Pope now but knows his coach will provide the same type guidance for him.
“Being around the same guys always helps. They’re great coaches. They changed my career,” he said about Pope and assistant Cody Fueger. “Now a guy like Trent will get to benefit from playing with them and see all the ways they can help him.”
Finishing 7-6 last year and losing to Clemson in the Gator Bowl is still on All-American defensive lineman Deone Walker’s mind going into this season.
“It was really more so just having a bad taste in my — our mouths, leaving our seniors off with an L (loss) last year. Now we’re just worried about week one. We’re worried about getting everything squared away and keep the main thing the main thing,” said Walker.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops wants his 6-6, 345-pound star to just be himself and continue to improve his overall game and Stoops believes he has progressed.
“He has worked really hard physically on his body. He’s working hard to continue to be a strong leader for us and make a difference on and off the field,” Stoops said.“He’s very disruptive obviously with the length that he has, the way he plays.
“He’s a unique individual. There’s not too many guys playing that look like him and that have that kind of size, speed, and the mobility that he has. He’s a very explosive guy for his size.”
Walker has started 25 of the 26 games since he’s been at Kentucky and has 95 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and 8.5 quarterback sacks in two seasons. He had 55 tackles with 12.5 tackles for loss last season.
Kentucky veteran offensive tackle Marques Cox often practices against Walker and says that’s the only way to fully appreciate how dominant he is.
“You underestimate how quick he is just because of his size. He’s really versatile. He’s really good with his hands. He’s really nimble. He can make you miss for how big he is. It’s ridiculous to me,” Cox said. “He’s a really good pass rusher, a really good player. He’s a very explosive, very great person. I can’t wait to see what he can do this year.”
Two of Kentucky’s top recruits last season were Corbin twins Jerod Smith (6-4, 273 pounds) and his twin brother Jacob Smith (6-4, 240 pounds). Both were one-time Michigan commits before flipping to UK early last season after both UK recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow and defensive coordinator Brad White had watched Corbin beat Frederick Douglass.
“’It’s good to see them out there full strength and getting better,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “Jerod is a guy that put on some weight. He is getting very explosive for a young guy so we will see where that takes him.
“Jacob, he didn’t get a chance (in spring practice). I think you heard me talk briefly post‑ spring about seeing them out there and seeing him on his feet. He had a shoulder injury so he wasn’t able to do too much in the spring. But right now, he looks good.
“They are good players and we will give them a chance to grow up and get in the system for a while, but good players.”
Jacob plays outside linebacker and Jerod is a defensive lineman who has added about 25 pounds since arriving on campus in January to prepare for SEC football.
“I found out I could not hold my own in the running game at the playing weight I got here with. I was getting tossed around in spring practice. I knew I needed more weight and the coaches knew it, so we worked hard on that,” Jerod said.
Even with the added weight, he says he is faster and more explosive than when he got to UK.
Quote of the Week: “I think we will know in the first three games what this team has. Game two is a must win. South Carolina is a team they have to beat every year. The last two years they played horribly (against South Carolina) and lost. That can’t happen this year,” UK Radio Network football analyst Jeff Piecoro on UK’s key game.
Quote of the Week 2: “We approach it with a chip on our shoulders. Everybody in the running back room, we take pride in the success that Kentucky has had at the running back tradition. We just make each other better and feed on each other,” UK running back Chip Trayanum on expectations for his position.
Quote of the Week 3: . We feel really good about the high school guy we took. He’s gonna be a special player but we want to give him time to mature and grow,” UK offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan on true freshman quarterback Cutter Boley.