Ex-Cass Tech star Jayru Campbell is all business at Ferris State

BIG RAPIDS — Ferris State football coach Tony Annese finished his spring game news conference Friday night and saw one of his players sitting by himself off to the side of the media room.

"Jayru, what's up?" Annese said.

"Not much," said Jayru Campbell, the former 4-star Detroit Cass Tech quarterback. "Just watching a little film."

Campbell held an iPhone about 6 inches from his face. His eyes never budged as his coach tried to make small talk. Campbell was breaking down his performance just moments after his Bulldogs had wrapped up their spring camp. He was still locked in.

No matter which player or coach you ask, they'll tell you Campbell's been all business since transferring to Ferris last August after leading Garden City Community College (Kansas) to a national championship in 2016.

He redshirted in the fall but is now in competition with returning starter Travis Russell (Grand Rapids West Catholic) and Division I transfer Bret Mooney (Colgate) for the starting QB job.

Campbell was once a troubled youth — twice arrested when he attended Cass Tech — and saw his scholarship to play for Michigan State taken away while he sat in jail. Now, those close to him say his jovial personality shines on the sidelines when he's not behind center. Teammates flock to him, and both Annese and QB coach Dan Rohn consider Campbell one of the best leaders on the team.

"First off, he's a born leader, so he's drawn our guys in quite a bit," Annese said of Campbell, who led Cass Tech to Division 1 championships in his freshman and sophomore seasons. "He hangs around our best high-character guys, so that's cool. Sometimes quarterbacks usually hang out in small groups. Not him. Sometimes he hangs out with the O-linemen or the D-linemen. He's very good at that."

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The Bulldogs, who lost in the NCAA Division II national quarterfinals last season, have had an impressive line of quarterbacks since Annese took over the program in 2011. Jason Vander Laan won back-to-back Harlon Hill trophies, given to the best player in D-II, and is now a tight end for the Indianapolis Colts. Trevor Bermingham and Reggie Bell, a former Eastern Michigan starter, took the Bulldogs to the national semifinal in 2016.

Campbell has already won over the locker room, and O-lineman Jake Rumler said "bringing him in here has made everybody better" because of Campbell's competitive nature. But the QB still has a lot of catching up to do on the field — especially if he wants to become an elite passer at Ferris like the ones before him.

Ferris runs a hurry-up spread offense, which he hasn't run since he was at Cass Tech in 2013. His junior college team ran a pro-style offense. He also has plenty of new faces to learn.

"I'm back in the hurry-up offense," Campbell said. "So I had to get back to learning new signals and what the schemes mean — we have a lot of them. I had to learn a whole new personnel. I'm playing with a bunch of new guys.

"Last year, I redshirted, so I didn't get to learn what guys could do what. I feel like the personnel is the biggest thing I had to learn this spring and putting in the plays."

Making plays hasn't been a problem. In the second quarter of the spring game, Campbell broke off a long run and shook off three would-be tacklers before he was stopped. He also completed a pair of long throws, including a 45-yard touchdown to a double-covered Keyondre Craig.

"A lot of those guys, if you just get them the ball, they'll make your stat sheet go way up," Campbell said. "They make it a lot easier. I feel confident.

"We've got an experienced O-line, and I feel like the offense will have a majority of the leadership. The defense lost 10 starters, so I feel the offense has to pick it up a lot more. I'm just ready to roll, to be honest."

Campbell, 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, showed off his dual-threat ability, which is something Annese loves in his QBs. But Campbell still needs to rein in Ferris' system.

"Jayru wants to lead on the field and get after it really hard with aggressive play," Rohn said. "I think he's grown in terms of learning the offense, but mechanically he has some things to do as far as understanding the reads and progressions. If he continues to work on those, and based on his ability to run the ball, he's going to be a dual-threat type of kid that you're looking for in our offense and able to do a lot of things."

Rohn wants Campbell to rely less on his athleticism and breakaway speed and more on trusting its scheme.

"The most important thing is just being consistent," Rohn said. "I just want to see him come out and play within the scheme. He's starting to do that more – playing within the offense and doing the things he's asked to do.

"(Freelancing) isn't going to win a lot of games. Our team wins football games, and our defense won a lot of games for us last year. At quarterback, we have a lot of great athletes, so if we can distribute the ball and get it into the hands of a number of different guys, we're going to be good."

Campbell said he wants to gain 15 pounds to better prepare for the hits he'll take at the D-II level. He also wants to continue learning under Annese.

His coaches have yet to see him take a day off.

"He's highly competitive, so that brings a lot of energy to the table," Annese said. "Guys know they better be bringing it every day or Jayru will be after them a little bit, so that's great. He's what you want out of a quarterback when it comes to those kinds of things."

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