in 2012, east lake improved to 11–2, but again lost in the fhsaa class 8a region final, this time to dr. phillips high school on november 30 by a 31–21 margin. in the first game of the season, when starter artavis scott injured his ankle, campbell stepped in at wide receiver. later in the season, when the team struggled to get pressure on the quarterback, campbell moved from safety to defensive end. as a sophomore, his tackle total declined to 56, but his 764 receiving yards earned him 27 major division i scholarship offers. his offers included arkansas, auburn, boston college, clemson, florida, florida state, georgia, georgia tech, illinois, louisville, miami (fl), mississippi, mississippi state, north carolina state, notre dame, ohio state, south florida, tennessee, texas a&m, ucf, ucla, vanderbilt, west virginia. east lake junior offensive lineman mason cole committed to michigan's class of 2014 on february 25, which was one day before cole was invited to participate in the 2014 u.s. army all-american bowl. that year campbell played basketball and ran track for east lake before having surgery on his left wrist on april 19. the following summer, he ran a 4.36 second 40-yard dash. his 4.36 time was on artificial turf, while he was timed a 4.37 on grass on the same day. he was also measured at in his vertical leap. he was a second team all-suncoast region and first team all-pinellas county team selection.