From Here...

  When Ian Campbell was looking for a place to play college football, there weren’t many suitors at the Div. 1 level. After being asked to become a preferred walk-on at Kansas State, he proved himself three times over with All-Big 12 selections in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons at both linebacker and on the defensive line.
    The ultimate blue-collar workhorse is going to have to do it again.
    As he watched the final five rounds of the NFL draft Sunday with family and friends at his childhood home in Cimarron, he saw names fall off the board and picks become scarcer and scarcer. But by 6:30 p.m., during the fifth round, his phone call came.
    It wasn’t a draft pick, but a chance to prove himself once more — and prove wrong everyone in the NFL who didn’t think he was big enough to be a defensive end or fast enough to be a linebacker. Campbell agreed to a free agent contract with the St. Louis Rams Sunday — essentially an agreement to go to the Rams’ rookie minicamp later this week and try to earn a spot on the roster.
    Campbell told the Globe Sunday that he did not know the specific details of the contract, but that he was excited to get another chance to beat the odds.
    Campbell has climbed from a 3A program in Cimarron to Div. 1 football in a premiere conference, and now possibly to the pinnacle of professional athletics in the NFL.
    “I’ve got my foot in the door,” Campbell said. “But there’s a lot of work ahead.”
    Excitement may have permeated the room as he got off the phone with his agent, Vann McElroy, but it was relief that settled in soon afterward.
    "It’s been a nerve-racking couple of days,” Campbell said. “But if it ends in me getting to do something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid, I’ll take it.”
    Aside from the constant draft-day updates and coaching from McElroy, Campbell said he was also in touch with Rams defensive line coach Brendan Daly and tight ends coach Frank Leonard. Leonard held the same position on the KSU coaching staff for the past two seasons.
     Campbell will leave Cimarron for the Rams’ rookie minicamp Thursday.
    Though he still must pass a physical and be poked, prodded and tested strenuously on the field before he is officially a Ram, the prospect can hardly contain his hopes on-field hopes for the next couple of seasons.
    “The type of defense they use, I’ll most likely be used primarily as a defensive end — on the line for run stopping and pass rushing situations,” Campbell said. “But now’s the time to compete, show the coaches that I’m a guy they need on their team, and part of that is going to be helping out wherever I can on special teams, so I’m excited about doing that, too.”
    But he won’t be going to the Show-Me State alone. The pride felt throughout the town of Cimarron will follow.
    “I don’t think we could be prouder,” said Campbell’s father, Curt. “We used to jokingly say it’s hard for his mother and me to fit in the same vehicle because we swell up so big, and it’s probably even more so now.”