By TYLER DONOHUE
Sports Reporter
MAYS LANDING – Oakcrest High School junior Brandon Bell continues to attract attention from the country’s top-tier collegiate football programs. The Falcons’ standout linebacker recently received full scholarship offers from Rutgers University, West Virginia and University of Connecticut.
Connecticut formally made an offer to the 6-foot-2, 215-pound playmaker on Friday, Feb. 17. Rutgers, one of the Huskies’ rivals, responded by extending an offer of its own two days later, when Bell spent Sunday visiting the university’s campus.
West Virginia joined the hunt on Wednesday. Oakcrest graduate Ismail Showell earned a spot on the Mountaineers’ roster this season as a walk-on freshman player.
Schools from all over the country have contacted Falcons head coach Chuck Smith about his star linebacker. College programs are not permitted to directly contact Bell during his junior year, so Smith has been a liaison.
“Recently, I feel like I’m Brandon’s mailman or secretary,” Smith said with a laugh. “I spend so much time talking to college coaches every day.”
Prior to the recent flurry of action, the 17-year-old already held a scholarship offer from Northwestern University.
Rutgers, West Virginia, Connecticut and Northwestern field NCAA Division I football programs. Away from the playing field, education is an important element of Bell’s decision-making process.
“He’s a tremendously bright person I always make sure people understand that first,” Smith said. “Brandon’s goal is to finish the college experience with a worthwhile degree that fully prepares him for life after graduation.”
Connecticut and Rutgers compete in the Big East Conference with the likes of Louisville, South Florida and Cincinnati. Northwestern is a member of the Big Ten Conference, which includes Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State and Penn State.
West Virginia recently left the Big East Conference to join the Big 12 Conference. The Mountaineers now match up with a new group of conference foes featuring Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
Smith applauds Bell’s attitude. In fact, it’s the first thing he brings up to recruiters before they begin discussing physical attributes.
“Brandon is a laid-back, quiet guy who has no ego,” Smith asserted. “In practice, games and in the weight room he commands respect by the way he presents himself and works. He leads by example and assumed the role of team leader as a junior.”
Bell has blossomed into one of the more highly-touted members of New Jersey’s 2013 football recruiting class. Scout.com, one of nation’s premier recruiting websites, ranks him at No. 20 on a list of the state’s top junior players (he is the site’s second-ranked New Jersey linebacker behind Buddy Brown of Williamstown High School.
Sam Hellman, the Rutgers recruiting beat reporter for Scout, believes Bell has the necessary blend of abilities to excel at the next level.
“Bell projects as a pure middle linebacker and finding one with his balance of athleticism and technique is not easy for colleges,” Hellman said during a phone conversation.
He believes Bell’s home state option could be ideal for both sides, although it remains early in the recruiting process.
“Rutgers needs at least two linebackers in this class,” Hellman explained. “Bell would be a great kid based on need and the importance of keeping that regional pipeline alive along with guys like Ben Martin (Absegami, Class of 2011), Tejay Johnson (Egg Harbor Township, 2010) and Jack Corcoran (St. Joseph-Hammonton, 2006) in recent years.”
While he is widely being recruited as an inside linebacker, Bell made a sizeable impact as an offensive weapon for Oakcrest in 2011. He accounted for 429 rushing yards and scored a team-high nine touchdowns, according the Falcons’ website.
Bell churned out 171 yards in a Nov. 11 playoff loss to Moorestown. On Oct. 28, he rushed for 130 yards to lead Oakcrest to a 55-0 victory over Pleasantville.
Defensively, Bell was a lynchpin in the middle of Oakcrest’s attack. He led the Falcons with 117 tackles (averaging nearly 12 per contest), racked up a team-high six sacks and scored two defensive touchdowns during his breakout junior campaign.
“In all my years of coaching, I’ve only seen a handful of kids who can dominate the game from their position like Brandon does,” Smith explained. “He explodes off the tape when you watch game film. Brandon is a game-changer every play on defense and when he gets reps on offense, it’s the same thing.”
Expect Bell’s recruitment to ramp up during the summer, when most D-1 programs begin to key in on prospects entering their senior season. He will have plenty of time to consider options before making a decision on National Signing Day, which takes place in early February of 2013.
Aside from the schools that have already offered Bell, there is plenty of interest. Teams that have come to Oakcrest to officially inquire about him include Ohio State, Maryland and defending national champion Alabama.
*To see the Oakcrest star in action, click play on the embedded highlight video. It features clips of the top plays from his junior season.
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