Cameron Marshall never really knew where the footage went. He shot a commercial for the Sun Devils, a promotional campaign rollout ahead of the upcoming 2011 football season. He was in full pads. The lights were dimmed for effect. And there was a faux USC player charging toward him

The instructions were simple. Recreate his picture-perfect hurdle from the Sun Devils’ 34-33 loss to the Trojans the year prior. (The hurdle set ASU up for what would have been a go-ahead field goal but kicker Thomas Weber missed a 42-yarder with a minute and a half remaining).

And, in about as dramatic a way as possible, Marshall leaped over the fake Trojan defender. The next season, ASU included Marshall’s hurdle as the climactic finale to its intro video -- the one aired prior to the stomp-the-bus video. It’s continued to this day.

Only thing was, as of last week, Marshall had never seen that video. During his days donning the maroon and gold no. 26, he always stood in the Tillman Tunnel as it played. And since he graduated, he’s only been in Sun Devil Stadium a handful of times, never paying close attention to the pregame festivities.

Instead, Marshall, the former ASU running back, has spent many of his falls thousands of miles north, trying to carve out a career in the Canadian Football League.

“It’s been good,” Marshall said. “It’s a blessing when you get to continue what you love to do. It’s still professional. You’re still playing against good competition. It’s a different game but I’ve enjoyed it.”

At the moment, speaking from his newly-purchased house in Phoenix, Marshall is a CFL free agent. Should he be signed -- given there is a season -- it would be his sixth year up north. There were times when Marshall thought he would never be in the CFL. That he could make an NFL roster -- both out of college and after a pair of sensational seasons in Canada. But seemingly every time there was hope, a new injury dashed it.

He skipped the 2016 CFL season, instead of bouncing around to different NFL camps in search of a job. Initially, there was interest. Marshall was young. He was talented. And, if nothing else, his 600 yards rushing the season prior as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ running back warranted a tryout.

He signed with the Seattle Seahawks in February. That contract didn’t even take him until the summer. And then he spent a short, six-day stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars that August. It remains his last NFL signing. He returned to Canada the next season, signing with the Saskatchewan Roughriders but hasn’t been able to put together a fully healthy season in almost a half-decade.

“I think for me, it was just a lot of the mental stuff,” Marshall said of his learning experiences with Seattle and Jacksonville. “In Seattle, I thought I had a good opportunity there and just kind of shot myself in the foot … Just my approach with everything. I don’t think I played loose or free. I played uptight and didn’t have fun with the game the way I should’ve.”

By that point, however, Marshall was used to the cuts. The first came right away. Marshall went undrafted in 2013 but quickly signed with the Miami Dolphins. The year before, the Dolphins went 7-9. In other words, Marshall wasn’t as quickly written off as he’d be if he signed with a contender.

And early on, the 5-foot-11, 215-pound running back flashed his speed and ruggedness for his new NFL coaches. He thought there may be a shot of making the team. If nothing else, the practice squad. Then in early August, a lingering hamstring injury caught up to him. Just like that, he was cut. Life of an NFL hopeful.

“That was frustrating,” Marshall admitted. “I was having a good camp and the hamstring was kind of nagging. The first cut always hurts the first … You kind of spend your whole life training for this moment and getting this opportunity. For it to happen like that, it could be tough.

“But I look at it as a blessing. Everything that I’ve gone through is a blessing.”

Read that again. “A blessing?” How are cuts and injuries a blessing? If anything, it feels like torment. But, Marshall softens his voice as he speaks of his football misfortunes. Not for sympathy. He truly believes all of his past blips are experiences he will learn from. Grow from. Become a better person because of.

Take his ASU career for example.

Imagine a bulldozer that could run through a steel building with no hiccups and then flip a 90-degree turn at 50 mph. That was Marshall. He was like a chicken running around. It didn’t matter how many people you put around him, how many hands you got on him. Good luck bringing him down.

It led to quite enormous success in Tempe. Even almost a decade after his playing career ended, Marshall ranks ninth in school history with (exactly) 2,700 yards on the ground and second with 38 rushing touchdowns. And the crazy thing is, if you told people after 2011, that’s all he would finish with, they would have asked, “What happened?”

His junior season was that great. Despite the Sun Devils finishing just 6-7, including four straight losses to end the regular season, Marshall became ASU’s first 1,000-yard rusher in five years and tied Terry Battle’s single-season record of 18 rushing touchdowns. He was going to lead the Sun Devils as a senior. He would litter his name throughout the ASU record book. And had the potential to put together one of the more complete careers for a Sun Devil tailback.

Then Dennis Erickson was fired.

In came Todd Graham. Really, it could have been any new face. They hadn’t seen Marshall play. They hadn’t seen anyone play. Sometimes, that’s a good thing, a fresh start. But a 1,000-yard rusher doesn’t need a fresh start. Doesn’t want one.

And, perhaps as an omen of things to come, Marshall dealt with injuries seemingly from the jump of Graham’s tenure. He received ankle surgery that forced him to sit for most spring practices and it lingered enough to render Marshall limited for a large chunk of fall camp.

Newcomers D.J. Foster and Marion Grice turned into Marshall’s Wally Pipp. They impressed Graham from his first days in Tempe, turning what seemed like Marshall’s backfield to carry into a by-committee ordeal. That season, Marshall finished with 135 carries for just under 600 yards and nine touchdowns. Foster and Grice combined for over 200 carries, nearly 1,000 yards and 13 scores.

“Looking back at it, it looks like (the injury set me back) a lot. At the time, I probably didn’t realize it,” Marshall said. “With the new coaching staff and some of the new recruits, I don’t exactly know what was what. They ended up making some different decisions and it didn’t seem like I was a big part of their decisions that year.

“Looking back, it was frustrating. But, you know, it is what it is. I don’t like to reminisce about all that stuff. You could get frustrated but you can’t change anything.”

There it is again. In a moment that would lead most to a fury deep enough it would accompany them to the grave, Marshall brushes it off. He didn’t dishevel past coach’s decisions. He spoke about Foster and Grice like brothers. And, somehow, he didn’t harp on the injuries. All of them.

It’s a bit mind-boggling. In a day and age where just about everyone who played high school football can list off a dozen people who screwed them over, 19 stupid play calls that took the ball out of their hands, seven coaches who had it out for them and 150 more who just didn’t give them a shot. And without all that, they claim, they would have been in the NFL.

Marshall simply moves forward. He tries to learn from, not dwell on, the past in the hopes it will make him a better person in the future.

“I don’t think there’s anything else you can do,” Marshall said. “Somebody once told me football is oftentimes like life sped up. You can be in a place where you’re having a lot of success and then you’re injured and then you’re replaced. That can all happen in a couple of months.

“A lot of people don’t go through those types of ups and downs in a couple of years. Sometimes things are out of your control. Sometimes, you have to evaluate yourself and be like, ‘I could have done X, Y, and Z better.’ At the end of the day, it’s all life. You get to learn and grow from it.”