The road to Rutgers was not a traditional one for fourth-year junior safety Zane Campbell. The Delran High (Delran, N.J.) graduate started out his college football career at division 3 Wesley College, located in Dover, Del.

There, he was a two-year starter at cornerback, earning All-conference honors while also helping Wesley to a division 3 semi-final playoff game as a sophomore.

“Wesley is not a typical D3 school. My quarterback Joe Callahan was actually on the Green Bay Packers and started the Hall of Fame game,” Campbell said. “There have been a lot of guys that bounced back from D1 colleges and went there. So when I was there, I knew I could play at a higher level.”

Those first two years at Wesley got Campbell thinking about moving up and playing at the division 1 (FBS) level.

“When I was there, I was talking to my coach and he said not a lot of guys make this jump,” Campbell said. “But he said to really think about the decision. My family and I thought about it and I believed I could play big time football.”

Coming out of Delran High Shool, Campbell fielded very little recruiting attention.

“I did not have any offers. I guess I was just overlooked coming from a small school,” Campbell said. “So when I decided to transfer to Rutgers, there were a lot of doubters saying that I could not play at the D1 level in the Big Ten. I just blocked them out and did what I had to do on the field.”

Campbell proved all those doubters wrong when he stepped onto the field for the first time as a division 1 football player when Rutgers outlasted New Mexico by a final of 37-28.

He finished the day with two tackles on special teams.

Moving forward, Campbell is hoping to see more playing time as he has settled in at safety as opposed to his old position of cornerback.

“[Head] Coach [Chris] Ash and [Defensive Backs] Coach [Bill] Busch gave me a chance to show off my talents. I can’t even thank them enough,” Campbell said. “I was playing corner my whole life. But Coach Busch saw something in me and moved me to safety. At first, I was a little iffy. But every day I tried to study the other safeties and learn as much as I could.”

Last week’s game was a long time coming for Campbell, who was forced to sit out last season per NCAA transfer rules. And through it all, he had some help from back home as he made use of his time and awaited his college football debut.

“My parents told me to just stay focused on school and football. This has always been my dream, so I just stayed focused.”