Bell Leaving His Mark at SHSU
10/14/2013 3:02:00 PM | Football
It could take a single pass completion against McNeese State on Saturday to make senior quarterback Brian Bell one of just 12 Southland Conference quarterbacks to throw for 7,000 career passing yards.
Bell, a starter for the Bearkats since he was a true freshman in 2010, already holds the school records in passing yards (6,992), total offense (8,105) and career touchdown passes (65). The bulk of those statistics came in the Bearkats' back-to-back Southland Conference championships and runs to the FCS title game in 2011 and 2012.
This season will be the final impression Bell leaves at SHSU, but right now he's just glad to be 1-0 in conference play after Saturday's 14-3 victory against Lamar.
“It's easy to think about stuff like that and of course I've thought about it,” Bell said. “We've just got to take it one game at a time. Of course I want to do great things. I want the team to do great things. But we've got to take it one game at a time. If we look too far ahead or if I look too far ahead, bad things are going to happen now. So just take it one game at a time. It's easy to say that, but we really take it seriously.”
As for the Lamar game, the Kats came away with the win despite a few shortcomings on offense. With the SHSU defense holding Lamar to a field goal, five total yards of offense in the third quarter and just two red zone chances the entire game, it only took a 45-yard run by Bell in the second quarter and his 18-yard pass to Stephen Williams in the third to give the Kats an edge.
Bell was 8-of-17 for 88 yards in the air, while two-time Southland Conference MVP Timothy Flanders was held to 83 yards on 28 carries.
“You can win by 50 or you can win by 1 and it all counts the same,” Bell said. “So a win is a win. Unfortunately, it's not the way we planned it to go. But a win is a win and we'll take it. We're looking forward to watching this film and learning from our mistakes and learning from what we did good, because we did a lot of good things, too.”
Bell also gave some insight on the value of his four-year starter experience, what it means to his hopeful career as a coach in the future, following in the footsteps of his father who coached him at China Spring High School.
“I feel like how I've grown is just a big thanks to my offensive coordinators, Bob DeBesse (2010-11) and Doug Ruse (2012-present) and Coach Fritz, just how much they've shown me and taught me about the game of football. I came in here and I'd always been around the game of football and I've always thought I knew a lot about the game. But truly I didn't really know as much as I thought I did. Just kind of being in the situation and getting all of these reps, I'm just really thankful for the opportunity. Coach Fritz has been a great leader for me and I've learned a lot from him.
“I want to be a coach and I couldn't have learned from a better group of guys. I'm really thankful for the opportunity and how I've grown. I feel like my job now is to kind of show the young guys, really kind of just taking ownership of the position because I'm not going to be here next year. I've got to keep leading those guys and doing the best I can trying to show them the mistakes I made as a young freshman that hopefully they won't make.”
