Earning a Dream: The Unwavering Journey of Josh Cameron
In April of 2022, Josh Cameron called his parents, overwhelmed by emotions and unable to sputter out the right words if any at all.
“Josh, what’s wrong?” his mother, Andrea, and father, Gaius, repeatedly asked, unable to understand what their youngest son was trying to tell them.
Finally, Josh was able to get the words out, “Coach is putting me on scholarship.”
In a split second, the Cameron family hovered around the phone, crying tears of joy, praising God and remembering each and every sacrifice it took to get to this moment.
Andrea looks back on that day and says, “The tears represented so many things. It was all of the times that coaches told Josh ‘No’ and ‘We don’t think you’re quite good enough.’ Just all of the hard work that he put in. He bet on himself and never flinched.”
But from the outside, Josh betting on himself didn’t always appear to be the safest or smartest decision.
Josh wrapped up his junior year at Cedar Park High School in 2019 with over 1,000 receiving yards, 80 receptions and 14 touchdowns. But despite his impressive resume, his recruiting page on 247 remained blank — no stars, no offers, not even a profile picture.
He had heard from smaller schools like UT-Permian Basin and Incarnate Word and was even promised a scholarship from UTSA, but an offer never came.
Josh, however, didn’t remain discouraged throughout the recruiting process. He knew he wanted to play college football at the highest level and knew he had the ability to make it there if he got the chance.
“I would say it irked me a little bit,” Josh said, reflecting on his high school recruitment. “I stopped asking ‘Why?’ I just started putting it to God and kept playing football. Because at the end of the day, that’s all you can do.”
On the other hand, Andrea was doing everything she could to get the word out about her son so that he could focus on playing football and being a kid — emailing coaches, direct messaging coaches, Tweeting at coaches — all to no avail.
“I can’t tell you the number of [high school] coaches, fans and people that we didn’t know who would approach us and say, ‘I can’t believe your son doesn’t have more scholarship offers,’” Andrea said.
Even to former Cedar Park head coach Carl Abseck, it didn’t always make sense why Josh wasn’t getting more looks from Division I programs.
“The only thing to me that was questionable in why he wasn’t recruited higher was because he was not looked at as a blazer [speed-wise],” Abseck said. “But the thing I think that was most overlooked was [Josh’s] work ethic, his intelligence and his great natural skills. His ball skills were phenomenal. He’s a great route runner. For us, he was like having another coach on the field.”
Heading into Josh’s senior season in 2020, the Camerons would routinely pray over potential schools for their son, but the offers weren’t exactly rolling in.
Josh finished the regular season with over 500 receiving yards, 42 receptions and six touchdowns but would often not play in second halves due to games being blowouts in favor of Cedar Park.
Championship Game.
It wasn’t until a 51-15 playoff victory over Foster on Dec. 17, 2020, when Josh had three touchdowns, 191 yards and 10 receptions, that a Power Five program picked up the phone.
The next day, David Wetzel, Baylor’s Associate AD for Football Relations who handled the walk-on program, came across Josh’s film and immediately called to offer Josh as a preferred walk-on.
The Camerons were familiar with Baylor because their oldest son, Justin, had graduated from the university in 2018. While at BU, Justin was a member of the “Dream Team,” which was a group of students who routinely scrimmaged against the women’s basketball team.
“We were super in love with Baylor already just from our experience with our older son,” Andrea said. “[Josh] wanted to stay close to home, so it was a natural fit. At the time, [the football team] was really top heavy with a lot of seniors [at wide receiver].”
From that point forward, Josh started to further develop relationships with Coach Wetzel and Chansi Stuckey, the receivers coach at the time.
“The love I got from Baylor was just different from everywhere else,” Josh said. “The walk-on culture Baylor had with people like Jairon McVea and Brayden Utley, some of those guys, factored into my decision. I [felt like I] could definitely do something here and not be overlooked.”
Josh had even received a phone call from Dave Aranda, which is typically unheard of for a walk-on to talk with the head coach of a program before they even get to campus.
“I bet he’s super tense like Coach Orgeron [at LSU],” Josh first thought before talking with Aranda. “But then I get on the phone, and he’s like, ‘Hey, Josh’ super calm. I was really confused, and I’m like ‘Hey, Coach.’ It was shocking but kind of cool. He’s real authentic and what you see is what you get with him.”
As Josh got to Baylor’s campus in the summer of 2021, he immediately had the goal in mind of eventually getting a full scholarship.
“[2021] was definitely a grind,” Josh said, looking back. “I wasn’t getting that many reps, but I would go to the weight room after practice and do extra abs, extra lifts, all of that stuff to hone in on my craft. … Just constantly doing extra because I wanted to be seen as a scholarship player.”
But to earn a full scholarship, Josh would have to make a name for himself and potentially even carve out a role behind the veteran upperclassmen receivers.
“Coming in for the first time and seeing freakish dudes like Tyquan [Thornton], RJ [Sneed], Drew [Estrada], guys like that, and seeing people lift all this weight, and I’m like, ‘Am I supposed to be here?’ “ Josh would sometimes ask himself. “I questioned that for a little bit, but I got over that quickly [and went to work].”
Josh saw snaps in the final three games against Texas Tech, No. 7 Oklahoma State and No. 11 Ole Miss but redshirted the 2021 season.
That following spring, with a year under his belt, Josh took steps forward both physically and mentally and got a call from Madelyn Martin, Coach Aranda’s assistant, in April to come and see the BU head coach in his office.
That’s when Aranda told Josh in an even-keeled voice, “Hey man, we’re going to put you on scholarship.”
“All the work [over the years], it just flashed in my mind,” Josh said. “I was crying tears of joy, and I immediately called my parents.”
As fall approached and the 2022 season went on, Josh’s role increased each week. The now former walk-on, wearing No. 34 in honor of Bo Jackson, his favorite childhood player, was becoming a reliable, sure-handed target.
Over the course of the final five games, Josh burst onto the scene with 21 receptions and 327 yards and was the Bears leading receiver during that span.
“I don’t think it really surprised me,” Josh said. “Honestly, I always knew what I was capable of. My confidence level is just knowing that I’m here for a reason.”
While Josh’s breakout was a surprise to most Baylor fans, it didn’t shock him or those who had been watching him throughout his football career.
“It didn’t surprise me in the least because of who he is and how hard he works and the talent that he has,” Abseck said. “The only question would be if he’d get enough chances to show that he deserves to be on the field. I’m just proud that he got the opportunity.”
As a testament to his character and hard work, Josh was selected as one of five players to represent Baylor at Big 12 Media Days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington this offseason.
“It meant everything, honestly,” Josh said of going to Big 12 Media Days. “Not only was I representing Baylor, I was representing the name on my back, the Cameron family. … Getting selected out of the 100 guys on the team, it was like, ‘Wow,’ this is what Coach Aranda thinks of me.”
As for Andrea, she couldn’t be more proud of her son and the journey he’s taken from being the star running back in Pop Warner to the all-time leader in catches (177), receiving yards (2,426) and touchdowns (29) at Cedar Park that couldn’t get a Division I offer to a scholarship athlete at Baylor.
“God has a plan for each of us,” Andrea said. “We don’t always understand His plan. We don’t always understand the timing, but I honestly believe this was the path for Josh. … In some ways, [everyone in our family] aspires to be like Josh and to have that tenacious, ‘I’m going to get it. I’m going to do it,’ mindset.”
And to Andrea’s point, before Josh left for Baylor in the summer of 2021, he told his parents, “I promise you, y’all aren’t going to have to pay this bill forever. I promise. I’m going to get a scholarship.”