Laurier Golden Hawks' Dillon Campbell, leading rusher in CIS football, has gone from obscure to outstanding

Standing on the sideline, injured and unable to help, cuts to a football player's core. Dillon Campbell, the humble halfback who leads Canadian university football in rushing by a country mile and then some for the Laurier Golden Hawks, can be as hard to draw out as he is to tackle in the open field. However, what's sealed into his memory is the sensation Campbell felt two short years ago, when he was on the sideline with a meniscus tear, watching the 2012 Hawks struggle in their first two games of the Ontario University Athletics season.

A player's university football experience can go by in a snap; even a four-year career might only consist of 30-35 games. Around that point, Campbell, who leds CIS with 850 yards in four games (212.5/game), realized he needed to do more to get on the field. Plus it hurt most of to be unable to help his team.

"When my injury happened, I got that chip on my shoulder — that I really haven't proved myself, that I haven't shown my capabilities," says Campbell, whose Golden Hawks (3-1) are eyeing a return to the playoffs. "Since then I've always been trying to keep that little chip on my shoulder and keep proving myself.

"I remember we played Toronto in that first game and I a bunch of friends that I had played ball with were on the Toronto team," adds the 22-year-old Whitby, Ont., native. "That was a big thing for me and then I missed it. And our first home game that year was against Queen's ... the year before they beat us in the playoffs and we thought that was a game we could have won."

Most of the generational backs who have cut a swath through CIS — current Toronto Argonauts slotback Andre Duris in his York days a decade back; Jesse Lumsden at McMaster; Western's Tim Tindale or Mount Allison's Éric Lapointe in the 1990s — came into the university game with a reputation that preceded them. Campbell, even to OUA devotees, has come out of nowhere. Second-year Golden Hawks head coach Michael Faulds says that last season, his staff thought at the outset of last season that it might need a running game by committee. Instead, Campbell won the spot and the OUA rushing title with 867 yards, despite being on a young team that went 1-7. A 100-yard scoring scamper vs. Western was his coming-out party.

There's a chance the 5-foot-9, 195-pounder could surpass his '13 total after his first couple of carries on Saturday vs. the York Lions.

"I really just wanted to prove myself — new coaches, new system," Campbell says. "I worked hard all off-season, harder than before, just to prove I could be the starter here."

Campbell, who played soccer as a youth before being swayed over to the gridiron, has the capacity to be a workhorse back even while playing in Faulds' no-huddle offence. His big runs invariably seem to involve some quick shuffling to cut off a block and break past the first level of the defence. Most of his breakaway runs have started with an inside handoff from quarterback James Fracas.

"I've been asked, 'Who does he remind you of?' and 'what kind of style is he?' " says Faulds. "He's kind of the all-in-one. He's got the potential, like we've seen across the CIS with some of the burners, like [Toronto Argonauts rookie and Manitoba grad] Anthony Coombs, who can take it the distance — like Dylan did last year when he had a 100-yard run against Western. In Week 1 this year, he popped a 98-yarder against U of T. But he's also got the ability to get those really tough yards, almost like Lumsden or Darryl Stephenson [the CIS career rushing leader]. He's dynamite strong and tough.

"The D [defensive] coordinators across the league know that we run 85 per cent of the time in between the tackles," Faulds adds. "To be able to pop that many big runs between the tackles is impressive. Dillon is 5-foot-9 and they can simply can't see him in there and because he runs so hard, by the time they find him it's often sort of an arm-tackle attempt and you're not going to bring down Dillon with one arm."

Campbell is quick to deflect attention to the other 11 starters on the Laurier offence. He knows it's important to realize that individual stats take a team effort.

"They're doing an exceptional job," he says. "I get all the glory ... but I owe everything to them. They're always joking that I should buy them dinner or get them Gatorade ... I love how every team will try to stop me in the run game, which opens things up for [quarterback James] Fracas and all the receivers."

That cool demeanour has come in handy for a Golden Hawks program that is getting used to handling success again after a string of mid-pack seasons. Laurier will face the ultimate measuring stick when it faces heavyweights Western, McMaster and Guelph over the final three weeks of the season. Faulds saying having a star who takes nothing for granted sends a message to the rest of the team.

"Dillon's faced a lot of adversity. He's the quiestest, most modest guy and that's what I really respect about him. Whenever I am in the weight room Dillon is in there working as hard as anyone can imagine. And the rest of his teammates look up to him..

"I can never remember a single time in practice where we run a play and Dillon isn't taking a mental rep, making sure he's got what was signalled in, which is important since we run a no-huddle offence," Faulds adds. "No one had to tell him to do that. He's got an incredible work ethic and i"m glad it's paid off and people are noticing. I'm lucky as a coach that both of our two best players, Dillon and [CFL defensive-back prospect] Chris Ackie, are like that."

Campbell, a kinesiology and physical education major at the Waterloo, Ont., school, is interested in pursusing work in personal training or physical therapy after his football days are finished. The CFL prospects for a star CIS running back, historically, tend to be spotty. Faulds says CFL scouts who initially planned on scouting Hawks defenders such as Ackie and defensive end Kwaku Boateng are getting "more and more intrigued" by Campbell.  

"Running back tends to be an American position, but with [Calgary Stampeders'] Jon Cornish and [B.C. Lions'] Andrew Harris mapping the way for Canadians, there is that possibility," Faulds says. "There's smaller guys, too, like [the Argos'] Andre Durie or Anthony Coombs.

"I think Dillon would fit in very well. No one is going to outwork him. In the CIS East-West game last year he was on special teams and made several tackles. That's definitely something the CFL guys look for. We don't showcase him as much as a receiver as we could but he has a great hands. So if a team wanted to use him in that Durie role, I know he could definitely do that."

Campbell, meantime, is eager to test himself against that gauntlet of nationally ranked teams in the final three weeks. His gaudy numbers might have been goosed by a soft first-half schedule, but a lot has gone into getting a chance to succeed.

"People are going to say, 'oh, they haven't played the hardest teams in the league yet,' " he says. "I'm looking forward to it because I think we can compete with them and I'm anxious to show the league what we can do.

"It's great that everything from the long off-season, all the early mornings, has finally paid off. Not just for me; for our entire team."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.