Princeton – One day Eli Campbell and his dad will get to sit down and joke about who had the better college career.
The younger Campbell made sure of that Wednesday when he signed his National Letter of Intent to play college football at the Air Force Academy.
Campbell’s father David played at Virginia Tech in the late ’90s and now he’ll get to watch his son do the same.
Campbell had offers to choose from with WVU showing interest late but decided he was set on Air Force.
“I started hitting FCS schools and tackling the Ivy League pretty well,” Campbell admitted. “I got a call after awhile when I was playing pickleball one day and he’s like, ‘Hey, this is Marc Bacote from Air Force’ and we talked for a while and then he’s like, ‘Hey, we’re going to offer you a scholarship to the United States Air Force Academy’ and that’s big time. The next few days my phone started to ring from other schools that quickly, quickly hopped on board and then I took one more trip up to Morgantown but it was a journey. And I kept feeling like it hit late but I just couldn’t be more grateful for where I’m at.”
Air Force requires five years of service after graduation but Campbell doesn’t look at that as a punishment.
“You have five years of service as a second lieutenant following graduation from the Academy, and of course you can serve after that,” Campbell said. “I think people look at it as a burden of oh man, you’re gonna have to serve in the Air Force but being an officer in the United States Air Force isn’t going to be a bad gig. They take care of you well, as well as being a cadet so that’s what I’m excited for.”
Campbell’s talents eventually garnered interest. He was part of the first senior class in school history to earn four consecutive playoff berths, anchoring a line that played for a Class AAA state championship earlier this month.
He legitimized himself by becoming the first player in program history to earn first-team all-sate honors three years in a row.
He knew he wanted to build upon that foundation at the next level and eventually found a school that was ranked in the Top 25 throughout the season. It provided him the best of both worlds he was seeking.
“There’s two ways you can kind of look at it,” Campbell said. “You’re like, ‘Well, what’s gonna give me the best education?’ and that’s the Ivy League for sure. Harvard was was a strong interest and I thought I was ready to go to Harvard. And then you can look at the football side of things try and sneak into a Power Five offer up in Morgantown or Blacksburg just to play that high level football. When I when I went to Air Force and looked at it I saw these guys are actually pretty good. They do they play Power Five competition and do a lot of winning, and then I started lookin at the academics. That mixture was something I fell in love with. I thought about what offers I’d take over Air Force and there wasn’t anything.”
While Campbell values the educational side of his new home, he doesn’t know what he wants to study. A seasonal activity has ignited a new interest though.
“I’ve been asked the question a lot,” Campbell said. “I’d always said economics, I like that. But then I built a gingerbread house the other day and that went pretty well, and I was like, ‘Maybe I want to be an engineering major.’ Luckily, I don’t have to declare for another year.”
