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FOOTBALL RECRUITING: Cass Tech’s Campbell stays consistent and close to home, selects MSU
DETROIT – Jayru Campbell is pretty adept at doing things early.
As a freshman in 2011, he quarterbacked Detroit Cass Tech to a state championship, the first ninth-grader to ever do so in Division 1.
Campbell, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound dual-threat under center set to enter his junior year this fall, kept with that same theme this week, bringing an early conclusion to his college recruitment and committed to Michigan State University Wednesday.
Rating one of the top prep signal-callers in the country, he chose the Spartans from a lengthy list of prestigious scholarship offers, including Alabama, Notre Dame and Wisconsin, among others.
Last fall as a sophomore, Campbell threw for 2,934 yards and 32 touchdowns, leading Cass Tech to a repeat state championship.
The Technicians 2012 state-title team will send well over a dozen players off its roster to the Division I college ranks.
There have already been a half-dozen players from the 2013 squad to commit to DI programs: Campbell, wide receiver-cornerback Damon Webb (Ohio State), linebacker Deon Drake (Michigan State), linebaker Will White (Toledo – soft), linebacker-running back Gary Hosey (Eastern Michigan), defensive linemen Brian Sanders (Bowling Green).
Campbell’s fellow incoming juniors, Mike Weber (tailback) and Josh Alabi (defensive end) are two of the most-coveted recruits in the state’s Class of 2015.
Cass Tech was recently ranked No. 2 in the country by a national poll.
Going for a third straight state crown this year, Campbell and the Technicians open the 2013 campaign at the Prep Kickoff Classic against Southfield, another club loaded with elite college talent.
Michigan State’s snaring of Cass Tech’s fearless field general could very well indicate that head coach Mark Dantonoio’s decision last week to hire Sound Mind, Sound Body-founder, Curtis Blackwell, as the program’s de-facto "recruiting coordinator" has already paid major dividends. Blackwell has acted as one of Campbell’s mentors at Sound Mind, Sound Body, a well-regarded football academy, since before Campbell was in high school.
Despite his high-profile the past two seasons as a prepster in the area, the University of Michigan never offered him a scholarship.
