The past 12 months have been a whirlwind for Oregon State safety and special teams ace Drew Kell.
Midway through last year's fall camp, Kell was on his way to earning a spot in the Beavers' defensive rotation when disaster struck. The Crescent Valley High graduate suffered a non-contact torn ACL, ending his redshirt junior season before it began.
It was an excruciating blow for Kell, a walk-on whose fifth year of college football was in jeopardy without financial aid assistance. But Kell refused to give up, and the Hawaii native was rewarded with a scholarship by new head coach Jonathan Smith prior to April's spring game.
Exactly one year after injuring his left knee, Kell is attempting to crack the safety rotation as the Beavers prepare for their Sept. 1 matchup with No. 5 Ohio State.
"It feels like it's my freshman year all over again," said Kell, who tore his right ACL and meniscus as a senior at CV. "Coming off the injury, I'm just getting back to football and learning football again. It's a new coaching staff, a new fall camp, and I like it. There's a lot of guys here in this senior class, and we're all going along with it and grinding."
Recruited primarily as a wide receiver, Kell redshirted in 2014 and played in eight games - mostly on special teams - the following year before moving to safety. He appeared in all 12 games as a sophomore, leading the Beavers' special teams coverage units with 13 tackles.
Kell was a candidate for an expanded role last season when his knee gave out during a drill. Fully cleared eight and a half months later, Kell has picked up right where he left off.
"Drew Kell deserves it," fellow safety Jalen Moore said. "His work ethic alone puts him in that rotation because he's always going hard. That's one thing you ask for in a player, always working hard and always doing the right thing."
Kell is the second member of his family to go from walk-on to scholarship player at OSU.
Devon Kell, Drew's older brother, was a defensive end for the Beavers from 2010-13. Devon earned a scholarship prior to his junior season.
"It was my brother's dream, and I wanted to do it just like him," Drew said. "When I called my parents, it was probably the best news I could've told them."
Drew attended Hilo High on the Big Island before moving to Corvallis with his mom in the lead-up to Devon's senior year at OSU. The Beavers won nine games in 2012 and defeated Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl the following year.
Watching his brother succeed in the Pac-12 inspired Drew to give major college football a shot.
"Not many people go from the Big Island to Division I, and I kind of saw my brother grow up and play at Oregon State," Drew explained. "I fell in love with the school and said 'I have to go here, I want to go here.'"
Drew roomed in the dorms as a freshman while his parents, David and Dayna, lived back in Hawaii. After one year, they moved to Oregon.
Standing 6-foot-1 at a solid 195 pounds, Kell has ideal size for a Pac-12 safety. Moore is locked in as a starter, but the other safety spot is wide open as David Morris is expected to miss a good chunk of the season with a foot injury.
Jeffrey Manning, TraJon Cotton, Moku Watson, Shawn Wilson and Kell have all taken reps with Moore in practice.
"He's working his butt off, understanding the system," secondary coach Greg Burns said of Kell. "I'm glad that he's back out here getting it going. I have high expectations for him.
"I do believe that he is going to contribute in some way, shape or form. My expectation is it will be some type of rotation system."
Kell said the experience of recovering from an ACL tear in high school helped him get through the process a second time.
Initially devastated, Kell could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
"I'd never really had a big injury like that growing up," said Kell, who went down in his second game at CV. "So mentally fighting through that the whole time, that six-month period ... if I hadn't hurt my right knee it would've been much tougher on the left. I don't wish that upon anybody, because taking out one of your legs for that long as an athlete is probably one of the worst things you can go through."
Fully recovered from last August's surgery, Kell is enjoying every moment of what will likely be his final season of organized football.
Kell accomplished his multi-year goal, becoming the latest member of his family to go from the Big Island to a scholarship player at a Power 5 school. With the latest knee injury deep in his rearview mirror, it's finally time for Kell to shine.
"It was hard sitting out last year," Kell said. "Just being able to get back on the field, that's good enough for me. I'm going to take advantage of that."