The Class of 2021 athlete from Albertville High School told 247Sports’ Keith Niebuhr that he hasn’t identified a complete group of favorites or settled on a pecking order for his top college choices, but he admitted Auburn and Tennessee are at the top of his list. “It’s like they’re tied for number one — Auburn and Tennessee,” said Bell.
The 6-foot-7, 256-pound Bell, who’s now being recruited by many teams as a possible tight end, said the Tigers and Vols both have been staying in frequent contact with him, led by Auburn running backs coach
Cadillac Williams and new Tennessee tight ends coach
Joe Osovet. “They text me every day,” Bell told Niebuhr. “Tennessee texts me every day.”
Bell, a two-sport standout, has received basketball offers from UAB, Samford, Jacksonville State and Saint Louis. He said his desire to play both football and basketball in college has a lot to do with why he’s currently high on the Vols and Tigers. “They’ll let me play basketball and football,” he said of Auburn. “So has Tennessee. That’s why they’re my top ones.”
But that’s not the only reason he likes Tennessee. The Vols gave him his first football offer almost a year ago, and he already has visited them at least three times. He most recently returned there Feb. 1 for their latest junior day, and they have impressed him during each of his trips to Knoxville.
“I just like how it feels like home there,” Bell said. “(Tennessee head) coach (Jeremy) Pruitt treats me like I’m his son or something, so that’s the one thing I like about Tennessee. And I think their message to me is just, like, keep working and then maybe you can make money for doing something that you love doing.”
Bell’s visit to Tennessee less than two weeks ago made a particularly big impression on him. “It was fun, actually,” he said. “It was the best time I’ve had at a college so far, because it was my first junior day. We got to do stuff.” He said he “for sure” plans to visit the Vols again in March or April.
Home-state school Alabama has yet to extend an offer to Bell, but he said an offer from the Crimson Tide would change his recruitment “a little bit — a lot, probably.”
With Bell now starting to focus more on playing tight end in college, he said he’s hoping to find a program with an offense that will allow him to “to showcase my game, for sure.” “I want to score touchdowns,” he said. For now, he’s not in a hurry to make his college decision. “What I had planned on is the end of the year this year — end of December,” Bell said.