The story must be well-known throughout college football at this point.
Should be.
Former star NFL defensive back is head coach at the Football Championship Subdivision level.
Regional college, with prideful graduates but not necessarily a geographically diverse student body, starts commanding interest from hundreds and then thousands of miles away.
States that in their own rights are football hotbeds with no shortage of their own college programs are seeing their players suddenly taking an interest in this program with increasing visibility.
Here, again, is Campbell University.
Private-school, moderately rural, 135-year-old Campbell - with 6,100 students and a half-hour from Raleigh, N.C., in Buies Creek, N.C.,- is drawing football commitments for its 2023 class already from eight different states and both coasts.
Their energetic and relentless head coach Mike Minter, a former Nebraska All-American and longtime star with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, is barnstorming the country with indispensable recruiting director Braxton Harris, human energy-generator Pat Miller and a staff featuring other former NFL veterans and up-and-coming position coaches.
After signing FCS’s top recruiting class of underclassmen in 2022, with a heavy dose of Florida and Virginia natives, the Camels are back on track again with double-digit commitments from California and a fast start In conference play.
“I think it comes down to, one, having a vision of what you want to get done,” Minter told FootballScoop. “What we wanted to get done is be the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. Then it’s about people. No matter your vision, you have to have great people in order to complete it.
“I’ve got great people, starting with Coach Harris as recruiting coordinator and we’ve got great people who can recruit and who find these guys to go recruit out there. Now we have a brand and we can go talk to anybody about. It doesn’t matter if you’re a five- or a four- or a three- or a two-star (prospect) or whatever. We can talk to you about Campbell football, and you can be a part of history.”
Oh, you were thinking Deion Sanders and Jackson State?
Hold the notion; it fits. Coach Prime’s undefeated and consensus top-10 Tigers host Campbell next week for Jackson State’s homecoming.
“Not only that, two guys that have a tremendous amount of respect for one another and running a prominent, respectable program,” Sanders said earlier this week about Minter. “He’s a good guy, man, and he’s doing some phenomenal things over there.”
First things first. The Camels (3-2, 1-0) are developing their own national FCS-brand. They’re also positioning themselves to make noise in the Big South Conference, with an league-opening win last week against Charleston Southern – first time – and earlier a season-opening win against Southern Conference resident The Citadel.
“I think this goes back to it has been Coach Mint’s vision for the program,” Harris said. “He knows as we build the program that we’ve got to be able to have wins in recruiting before the wins on the football field. Now we’re seeing both of those come to fruition. The brand is a lot bigger because we’ve expanded to other states. We’re not just a small, East Coast college. We are able to call kids on the West Coast, and they know who Campbell is.”
He came in like a wrecking ball! 🎶#FCS x 🎥 @GoCamelsFB pic.twitter.com/OtNA8VmH1J
— NCAA FCS Football (@NCAA_FCS) October 12, 2022
Cali kids now know the Camels program because it is the reigning FCS recruiting champion from its 2022 class, per both Rivals and 247Sports, with 11 signees carrying with them three- or four-star status. Those are student-athletes who know being recruited beyond just their immediate geographical radius, with four signees in that haul from Florida.
Campbell’s current roster features players from 18 different states, Washington, D.C., and Australia.
The Camels already have one player, freshman wideout Shannon Henry, from Eureka, California, but are positioning themselves for potential back-to-back No. 1-ranked FCS recruiting classes with their unprecedented work this cycle on the West Coast.
In the team’s lone bye week after a money-game contest at Football Bowls Subdivision program East Carolina, Harris, Miller and other coaches scoured the recruiting trails.
A few hours after their loss to the Pirates, Harris and Miller boarded a commercial flight to Los Angeles International Airport. For three-and-a-half days they patrolled Southern California high school hallways.
They didn’t hang out on football fields; they knocked on office doors throughout the schools.
“It’s funny, we were flying out there and sitting there talk to Patrick, thinking what is best for these kids,” Harris said. “Is this best to bring them all the way across country to go to school?
“Then we got a chance to get out there and see and talk to the families and kids, and industriousness is exactly who they are. We talked with principals and guidance counselors and teachers and family members. These kids want an opportunity to see something different, to experience something and somewhere in life that they haven’t thus far. That’s what college football is all about, frankly; providing opportunities that maybe these kids don’t otherwise get in life.”
Campbell is pouring unprecedented resources into its program, including its long-running standing of having a dedicated sports psychologist as a staple asset in Minter’s tenure. Dr. Mari Ross travels with the team, is available throughout each week and oftentimes meets with parents on their sons' football official visits.
The message is resonating. Minter & Co. currently have 11 2023 commitments from California; four from Inglewood High School and three from Bishop Amat.
Campbell’s Golden State success actually is spawned from failure.
“We connected with Coach Figs from Inglewood High School (California), and we were looking at one of his former players in the transfer market,” Miller, key in the program’s recruiting success last cycle in Virginia, said. “The transfer didn’t pan out but the relationship developed from there. He discussed how his guys wanted to travel and experience different parts of the country and become a part of a bigger family at the collegiate level.
“Coach Figs really cares about his players, he wants to send their guys to a place where he knows they can be successful and taken care of. That’s why he felt so strongly about sending his 2023 guys to Campbell. He saw what Coach Minter was building and the family atmosphere he has created at Campbell. With that he felt comfortable sending his guys across the country to us.”
The Camels have additional pledges from Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina and Ohio in a class with 16 total three-star prospects, per 247.
It’s a top-70 class in a pair of rankings. Nationally. All levels of college football, including FBS. Right now, Campbell’s recruiting stands above Arizona State, Boise State, Cal and Indiana, among other noteworthy programs.
With his program cornerstones of industriousness, a love for hard work and of the game, “because we can’t put that in you,” as well as purpose and a plan, Minter sets forth a roadmap for success at Campbell.
“The first thing, our culture is we’re a culture of unlocking greatness,” Minter said. “What we preach, what we’re going to do, that’s our only purpose. But How? Through trust and accountability. We’re going to build that trust first with the kid, build relationships and understand what makes him tick. Then we’re going to get up under the hood and see what they’re about. That’s how you build trust. Be consistent every day. You can’t be a happy coach one day and a mean coach the next day. Kids don’t know what they’re getting.
“We’re going to build trust first before we demand anything. But once you build that trust, you can hold them accountable the standard.”
Campbell’s standard is rising. The Camels have a player on the prestigious Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List in offensive lineman Mike Edwards; both the East-West Shrine and Hula bowls have interest in Edwards, Julian Hill and other members of the Campbell squad.
NFL scouts now can hit the ACC program’s in North Carolina’s Research Triangle and also quickly get by a Camels practice.
"At the end of day, we get paid for wins and losses, and people pay attention when you’re winning,” said Minter, who credited former college coach and mentor Tom Osborne as the standard-bearer for the sports psychology element in the Campbell program. “At the end of the day, all the stuff we’re talking about has to lead to that. That’s what I tell my staff, and I’ve got a great staff.
“Now, we’re not talking theory anymore. People are starting to see the results, not only in wins and losses but also seeing results as far as the NFL is concerned. We’ve had all 32 (NFL) teams in here. Why? Because we’ve got seniors who can go to the next level. We’re graduating at a high level with a great education, we’ve got guys with a chance to go to the next level and we’re getting some wins. All of a sudden, people are talking about Campbell.”
And they’re doing it from coast to coast.