Nothing's Guaranteed, and Camper is Fine With That

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Coming off a record-setting season, Cayden Camper is guaranteed nothing.

If he wants his job back as Colorado State's placekicker, he's going to have to earn it among a group of three others who special teams coach Tommy Perry said are not making it easy for the senior from Pueblo who was a Lou Groza semifinalist a season ago after making 25 field goals, including a perfect 6-for-6 in a game against San Jose State.

Camper is good with this. Pretty much, he's good with everything these days, which is a comforting place for him.

"There's not so much worry off the field, so when I'm here, It's just football,' Camper said. "I'm not out there thinking of other things away from here."

That's not to say everything is perfect. He's still dealing with the recovery process of ankle surgery, the result of a freak accident in the winter while trying to mount a TV to his wall. It caused him to basically miss the entirety of spring camp, the ideal time to establish himself with a new staff.

He just didn't get the chance, and now all he wants is as many chances as he can to prove to them what others witnessed a year ago. His ankle still isn't perfect. It still lacks some of the normal flexibility, and when he strikes the ball, Camper said it just feels different.

One might think a record 25 field goals would cement you a job the following year, but Camper isn't one of them. New special teams coach Tommy Perry has never sensed that from him, either.

"He knows it. There hasn't been an ounce of entitlement from him. Not one ounce," Perry said. "That room -- I would challenge anybody to walk into that room to try and guess who the starter was last year and who the incoming freshman is. They all compete great."

Which is one of the things Camper does best. He went to Pueblo County High School because there was competition there and it would make him better. He won that job. He walked-on at Colorado State and didn't necessarily earn his first game action in a normal way.

He was a freshman, and during the final walk through before traveling to Arkansas, the kickers were missing everything. So Camper was pulled out of class to get on the team plane. He connected for two field goals in three attempts and all four of his extra points. It would be a very up-and-down year for him, making 7-of-13 overall, including a 50-yarder against UNLV.

Then the next year, he didn't win the job. The next year, he did again but it was far from smooth sailing. He hit just one of his first four attempts and was challenged again, but a bit of a pick-me-up speech from punter Ryan Stonehouse and continued support from his parents John and Marisa helped clear his head and ignited a huge run.

He made all five of his attempts against Toledo in a win. Two weeks later, he set the school and Mountain West record with a 6-for-6 performance in a win over San Jose State. He was 5-of-6 the following week against New Mexico, hitting 13 in a row at one point.

Things were better, but he was still fighting some of his own demons.

As camp opened last week, they were no longer there.

"A lot of stuff creeps back up on me here and there, but I've done pretty well. Especially my life outside of football has been great, and it's because of this staff and they've been great," Camper said. "It's been good off the field, and I feel that was a big problem for me last year. Even when I had the 6-for-6 and I was hitting records, my life off the field was not healthy at all. Now, I have a great girlfriend, Gigi Leberger, and great people around me."

Perry has him meditating, which is a major upset in itself considering Camper is not one to sit still. Perry also has him focused on the here and now, not on what happened previously and what may happen in the future.

All of it has helped Camper not only deal with coming back from injury, but also other key changes which affect him. The Rams have a new longsnapper in Jacob Raab and a new holder in Paddy Turner. He trusts Raab, but his focus has always been on his holder, not the ball coming back. To that end, building a friendship with Turner has eased the transition.

So has his mindset when it comes to being the starter once again.

"I look at it and sometimes it gets on my nerves people put me on a pedestal for the year I had last year, but really, I was 25 out of 32 attempts," he said. "There's a lot of opportunities, like Utah State, where I could have performed. People say it wasn't your fault, everybody was messed up, but at the same time, we practice mayday field goal a lot, and that's something I wished I would have paid more attention to. This year, I have it down. It's not going to happen again."

First, he has to win the chance, and Perry isn't the only one touting the other kickers in camp. Camper is impressed with the new kids in town – Henry Katleman, the transfer from Oregon; Michael Boyle, who transferred from Hawaii; and freshman Bryan Hansen.

They all have strong legs, and each has proven to be accurate. The rest of camp will be spent trying to find a separator between them, and every chance he gets, Camper wants. He stood up and asked for one earlier this week.

Tuesday, the day before the scrimmage, was supposed to be a non-kicking day. But in the end, head coach Jay Norvell wanted to end with a game-winner attempt, and Perry asked for volunteers. Camper spoke up immediately and nailed it.

That's the teammate Thomas Pannunzio said all the returners know.
"I just know during spring ball when Cayden wasn't able to kick, it killed him inside. Most guys, they're out there kind of like, whatever, that spots already mine because I hold the record at CSU," Pannunzio said. "It killed Cayden. He wanted to be out there making all the kicks so everyone knew he was ready for the season.

"We do a one-to-win kick at the end of practice, and I told Cayden the other day I wasn't even worried about it. I'm not even going to watch it because I know it's going to go in. I think that's the way the rest of the team is too; they have faith he's going to make the kick."

Pannunzio remembers the high school version of the kicker, and even then, he had swagger, even if he was short a few of the tattoos he has now. Perry has seen that, too. If the choice was made on competitiveness alone, he said Camper would win hands down. It's one of the traits he likes about the young man.

When Perry was initially hired, the first player he called was Camper. They talked, and he gave Camper a clean slate, giving no regard to whatever Camper had done or dealt with in the past. Their time would be a new start.

It took a while for Camper to insert himself into the competition, but he'll never back down. He wants every chance, and he knows the other kickers do, as well. But what may serve him best is the fact every aspect of his life has him in a better place to execute.

Perry sees that, too.

"If you talk with Cayden, that's one of his biggest adjustments is that he's smiling all the time," Perry said. "I think he's really enjoying football right now, he's enjoying the competition and the guys around him, so I think we're working toward that being here, right now. The best kicks don't always go through. Sometimes the worse kicks find a way through."

A year later, Camper has gone from the man setting records to one of four trying to be the guy on the spot. He enters sixth on the career board with 32 field goals, and he ranks seventh in career conversion percentage at .711 and was honorable mention All-Mountain West. He's good with that, in large part, because he finds himself in a better place personally overall.

It makes it easier to handle the stress of trying to get his kicks back to consistently flying end-over-end, not in some X rotation. It makes it clearer to see whatever he lines up being true and through the middle. It doesn't always produce records, but it feels great all the same.

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