Walk-on to Starter, Shea Campbell Looks to Finish Season Strong

The 2018 season has not been kind to the Mountaineers’ linebackers. More specifically, their left knees.

Coming into the season, linebackers Brendan Ferns and Quondarius Qualls learned that they would be shelved for the majority of the season due to their respective knee injuries. In the first half of the season opener versus Tennessee, newcomer and starter Charlie Benton injured his knee and will not return this season. That’s more than enough to make defensive coordinator Tony Gibson cringe but yesterday we learned that Adam Hensley would also be lost for the season after suffering a ACL tear while covering kickoffs in practice.

Next man up as they say. And that next man has been former walk-on Shea Campbell.

Campbell, a Morgantown High School graduate, walked on to the football program in 2015. Both Holgorsen and Gibson have said that he reminds them of former linebacker Justin Arndt who was also a walk-on. Like Campbell, Arndt wasn’t called into action until late in his career and became one of the team’s best tacklers in 2016.

Gibson is hoping he’s found another walk-on capable of shouldering the load of being a starter.

Last week, Campbell made his first career start versus Iowa State and tallied a team-leading 12 tackles in the loss after looking “lost” at times during the first half of the season.

Baylor provides another opportunity for the West Virginia native to build even more confidence and add depth to a group that needs it the most.