Kevin Jairaj/USA TodayIf the Oklahoma Sooners' Blake Bell had been paying attention to the quarterback trend in college football, he would have woken up the morning after the Sugar Bowl he didn't play in and started getting his walking papers in order.
He would have said, "Heck with you, OU" and started plotting to find another school. He was a cult figure, he was the Belldozer for crying out loud. He was the next Tim Tebow, an oversized quarterback with willpower. He was not going to be anybody's backup.
That is how many quarterbacks think these days, and who can blame them?
But this quarterback woke up the morning after the Sugar Bowl he didn't play in and had to ice his face because his grins had been so wide they had to hurt from the celebration the night before. Bell was in all of the postgame pictures in the 45-31 takedown of mighty Alabama, joyfully looking like he was the guy who threw for 348 yards and four touchdowns, not Trevor Knight, the guy who replaced him.
Sean Gardner/Getty ImagesBell wasn't going anywhere.
The essence of Bell is not as a quarterback. It is as a football player. It is as a teammate. It is as a Sooner through and through. He wasn't going to be "the man" at Oklahoma, so instead of transferring to make himself the signal-caller somewhere else, he decided he would change positions to tight end.
He refused to transfer when he got dumped to second string. A lot of people thought Knight was only adequate as a quarterback—and still do—and Bell should have at least tried to take the job back in spring drills. Bell wasn't one of those people.
"The grass isn't always greener," Bell said outside the Sooners locker room after their 45-33 win over West Virginia on Sept. 20. He wasn't going to transfer.
Perhaps that should be a lesson to some of the quarterbacks who parachute into new programs as transfers. The grass they plop down on isn't always greener. Sometimes it has needles. Alabama backup Jacob Coker, who left Florida State, comes to mind, though he still has another year to get his considerable talent on track.
Rob Bolden left Penn State for LSU and sat as a reserve and transferred to Eastern Michigan. Gunner Kiel committed to LSU, then Indiana, then enrolled at Notre Dame. He's now at Cincinnati. The list of unfulfilled quarterbacks on the move goes on and on.
Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesBell was hitched to the Sooners for the long haul. He wasn't there just to be the star. Sure, it was fun being the guy with the ball, the guy who quarterbacked the win at Notre Dame in 2013, the guy who rallied the Sooners past Oklahoma State for the Big 12 title with 19 seconds left.
But there is more to it than being the first name on the marquee, he said.
"I tell people I like playing quarterback, but I also tell them I really like being an Oklahoma Sooner," Bell said. "I have been here with them four years, and I wanted to finish with them. That meant something to me."
In the December workouts before the Sugar Bowl, Bell went to see offensive coordinator Josh Heupel and asked for a chance to play tight end. Bell saw that Knight was going to be the quarterback, even after Bell's big hand in the win over Oklahoma State. The program could have balked and said, "Dude, you are too valuable as a backup QB if Knight gets hurt; stay where you are."
Instead, Heupel said "OK" to the position switch.
Bell admits he looked across the fence at the green grass other quarterbacks jump for when they are dumped to No. 2. He thought about leaving. Bell completed 60.1 percent of his passes in 2013 and had a quarterback efficiency rating of 132.2. He was more than a mule taking snaps. As a senior in high school in Wichita, Kansas, Bell passed for 2,792 yards and 32 touchdowns.
Patrick Semansky/Associated Press"I got a few phone calls about going to play quarterback somewhere else, and I was definitely considering it," Bell said. "There was an option to leave. But I wanted to stay here and win a championship and be with my friends."
Bell stayed and went through spring ball practicing as a tight end. He graduated in May with a degree in communications.
Mark Bell thinks it's pretty slick that his son could be a quarterback for a top-10 team (2013) and also a starting tight end for a top-10 club. It's quite a distinction, which adds to the family legacy. Mark played at Colorado State, was a fourth-round draft pick in 1979 and played six seasons in the NFL. Blake's uncle, Mike Bell, played at Colorado State, was a first-round pick of the Chiefs in 1979 and played 12 seasons as a defensive end.
Of course, not every quarterback is 6'6", 260 pounds and can just meander from the quarterbacks meeting room down to the tight ends meeting room. Bell could do it, but it has not been a seamless transition. He is not suddenly, magically, Tony Gonzalez.
Sue Ogrocki/Associated PressHe has to learn how to block down, scoop block to find a linebacker and block in space. In the Sooners' 45-33 win over West Virginia, Bell could handle turning his shoulders left, then squaring up and blocking down on an offensive tackle. He had more trouble with the linebacker on the move, lunging several times and blocking just air in a whiff.
Bell has the right mentality, though. He is willing to work. And he has the right ride, too, for a lineman. It is a 2005 black Tahoe. It's tricked out like a lineman would do it. Big wheels, big tires, 140,000 miles. That's more fitting of a tight end than a quarterback anyway. A quarterback would use wax for a smudge on the paint; Bell probably uses spit.
Bell has six receptions for 71 yards and one touchdown going into Saturday's game with Texas in the Cotton Bowl. He is playing nearly 90 percent of the snaps a game and has handled himself well as a blocker. He is lined up either as a tight end or split out as part of three-wide as the middle receiver, or as an H-back.
And, oh yes, the Belldozer made a return. On a 3rd-and-2 play from the West Virginia 21-yard line and the Sooners ahead 31-27, Bell took a snap. WVU mucked it up with some penetration, but the Belldozer fell forward for two yards and the first down.
The next snap he was back out of the spotlight; he was back on the line.
Patrick Semansky/Associated PressFor the record, Bell officially made the transition from quarterback to tight end when he lined up for the iconic Oklahoma drill. Every college football team does this drill, which was invented by legendary coach Bud Wilkinson. It is head-to-head in a confined space. You hear the whistle, then try and run over the guy in front of you. Quarterbacks don't do the Oklahoma drill and had never done it.
Bell called his father the night before for some coaching. "First man off wins," Mark Bell said. "Got to get your mean on."
Bell was lined up against an imposing force: Geneo Grissom, a 6'4", 252-pound linebacker. "Blake won big," his father said proudly.
It was official then. He had gone from the Belldozer to the bulldozer, another grunt on the line. The Sooners replaced a cult figure with a different kind of hero, one simply named Bell.
Ray Glier covers college football for Bleacher Report. He has covered college football and various other sports for 20 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post and Al Jazeera America. He is the author of How the SEC Became Goliath (Howard/Simon & Schuster, 2013).
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