Clark Column: Closer look at new FSU O.C. Bell ... 'He's going to be great'
I stopped paying attention to Maryland football once it left for the browner pastures of the Big Ten. And I've never paid attention to Arkansas State.
So, like most of you, I was not very familiar with Walt Bell when we heard he was going to be Florida State's new offensive coordinator. Also like most of you, I got familiar with his resume very quickly, looked up where he went to school, what his coaching resume looked like and what kinds of numbers his offenses put up.
But I wanted to know more about the guy himself. Not just the records he set at Arkansas State or the injuries his offense suffered at Maryland.
So I reached out to the one coach who knows him better than anyone -- Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson. Not only did Anderson hire Bell at Southern Miss, North Carolina and Arkansas State, but he also coached Bell when he was a wide receiver at Middle Tennessee State in the early 2000s.
"He was one of those guys that could learn all four spots," Anderson said of Bell. "I knew really quickly that he was just super bright. He'll tell you this: He was an average athlete. But he was also the hardest worker in the room. And he was super smart. He was a coach in the room. And you knew that."
Because he was addicted to football.
Anderson described Bell as a "gym rat." When I used the term "football nerd" to describe him, his old coach didn't disagree.
"That's him," Anderson said. "He has no hobbies. Football, recruiting -- that's it. There are no hobbies. He don't play golf. He don't play tennis. He lifts weights, watches ball, studies ball, coaches ball and recruits. That's him."
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Bell spent his first spring in the coaching profession living on Anderson's couch -- as a volunteer student assistant -- while Anderson installed the offense at Louisiana-Lafayette.
After Bell spent a year in Memphis as a graduate assistant, Anderson and head coach Larry Fedora were able to hire him in a full-time role at Southern Miss. He then moved on with both coaches to North Carolina. When Anderson was named head coach of Arkansas State, he knew exactly who he wanted to bring in as his offensive coordinator.
"He has a tremendous capacity for football and is way more mature than his age," Anderson said of the 33-year-old Bell. "Between playing for me and coaching with me, he has played in this offense, he helped me install it at Southern Miss, he helped me install it at North Carolina, and he installed it here (at Arkansas State) as my coordinator."
Bell was 29 when he was named offensive coordinator at Arkansas State. And I'll be honest, after talking with Anderson for a bit, I assumed it was more of a job in title than actual responsibility. Not that I didn't think Bell had input in the offense or that he wasn't vital to the staff, but I assumed it was essentially Anderson's offense. That the head coach was the one running the show.
You know, like Randy Sanders being the "offensive coordinator" at Florida State under Jimbo Fisher.
I was wrong.
"I trusted him completely," Anderson said. "When we got here, I truly turned it over to him. ... And he's extremely innovative, no doubt. So I said, 'Run what you want to run. The handcuffs are off. You call it. Run with it. It's your offense.'"
That offense just so happened to break records at Arkansas State. It scored 65 touchdowns one season and finished No. 12 in the nation in total offense the next.
It's why after just two years, Bell was hired to be the offensive coordinator at Maryland. Even today, you can tell that move shook up Anderson. Not that he begrudged his pupil climbing the coaching ladder, but it was hard to see him go.
"His father is not with us anymore," Anderson said. "And I think he'd tell you my wife and I are the closest thing he has to true family. I consider him family. He's like another son to me. He's always been that way. And I think he would echo that. We talk about everything.
"And it was like losing one of my kids when he left to go to Maryland. I knew it was a great opportunity, but I cried when he left. It was like losing one of my kids. But I pull for him, and I'm so excited for the opportunity he's got ahead of him. They got a great one in my opinion."
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What impressed Anderson the most about Willie Taggart's hire is that the FSU head coach didn't just look at a list of the top offenses in the country and say, "I want the guy running that one."
He did his research. He saw potential. Maryland's offense wasn't always very good the last couple of years, but that wasn't because Bell was in over his head. It was because the Terrapins were crippled by injuries -- especially at the quarterback position.
It's too early to know how much control Bell will have of Taggart's offense. But it also seems obvious he didn't hire him to be a coordinator in name only. He wants real input. And real innovation.
"I know the numbers at Maryland were not good," Anderson said. "But to look beyond the stats and truly see what he's capable of and realize how good a job he did with having four quarterbacks go down -- that says a lot about Willie. To look past that and see what he can truly bring to the table?
"I think it's a tremendous hire. ... He's going to be great."
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