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Dateline: 1,209 Kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico
Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell grew up in Ohio's football capital of Massillon, Ohio. It is the town in which the Hall of Fame coach of the Cleveland Browns and original owner of the Cincinnati Bengals made a reputation for himself before moving on to Miami University and Ohio State. Then on to the NFL.
Campbell is loosely following a similar path. He played at Massillon and NCAA Division III power Mount Union before graduating into coaching. there.
He spent five season as the head coach at the University of Toledo, where he coached Colerain High School grad, Chris Dukes. He also coached with University of Cincinnati coach, Scott Satterfield.
Dukes has moved on to Central Michigan to coach himself. to coach defensive backs under head coach. Matt Drinkall's staff.
"I heard he's doing a great job," Campbell said.
Campbell developed relationships in south west Ohio and recruited several players from this area, specifically former Colerain players DeShaunte Jones and his brother Keonte Jones. But the most famous of all is David Montgomery, who graduated from Mt. Healthy high school but played alongside the Jones boys in middle school at Colerain Middle, along with Kyle Bolden, the son of former Colerain and current Lakota West head coach, Tom Bolden.
Tom Farmer, 1971 Colerain grad and former University of Kentucky tight end.
“They were phenomenal,” said Farmer. “Great athletes, great runners and great kids.”
Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery has played in the NFL for over six seasons, appearing in 92 games and an additional five postseason contests. Sunday Montgomery gets a chance to play in Cincinnati for the first time.
“A bunch of my family members are coming, I think it is special for me that I get to play at home,” Montgomery said. “But I think it is really special for me because my sister gets to come to the game.”
His sister, Kiki, was left paralyzed from the neck down following a car accident last February. On Sunday, she will get to see her brother play in person.
“Almost a year and a half ago, on Valentine’s Day, my sister got in a really bad car accident. Now she is paralyzed from the neck down. And she obviously can’t move," Montgomery said. “But this will be the first game that my sister can actually see me play with her own eyes so I’m super super excited about that and I’m just happy that she’s able to be there.”
Because of Montgomery being at home visiting family, Campbell was not able to connect with him even though his Iowa State Cyclones played the University of Cincinnati at Nippert Stadium.
"It was really awesome," Campbell said. "One of the fun things about being somewhere 10 years is that you get to these different areas and cities. Obviously, you know how much this area means to our recruiting from Dayton down to Cincinnati and some of the great players. We have great gratitude from seeing Deshaunte today and last night at the hotel. It means a lot to me and again, sometimes we get lost in all the other stuff. It is fun for those guys to come back and be around our program. I know David's coming in for a big game. Obviously, we'll all be pulling for him. We have a large cheering section in Ames, Iowa for those guys. We are really proud of them."
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