GREENVILLE — To his coach, Joel Bell might have seemed too much of a lone wolf to ever be captain of the Furman University football team.
Bell keeps his hair down past his shoulders, rides a motorcycle and hasn’t really lived with his parents in years. The sport is relatively new to him. At Spartanburg High School, he started out as the water boy. Bell grew up overseas and learned everything he knew about football from video games.
Now he’s in a football video game.
The senior offensive lineman was named first team All-Southern Conference at Wednesday’s preseason rouser at the Embassy Suites.
“I wanted him to come to media day,” Paladins head coach Bobby Lamb said, “because he’s the best-looking thing we’ve ever had.”
Good-looking to a college football coach is 6-foot-8 and 320 pounds.
“Doesn’t have an ounce of fat on him,” Lamb said.
That, too.
Bell couldn’t attend the media session because he was visiting his parents, missionaries in Croatia. He would have been a popular interview. The massive left tackle is a unique personality considered likely to be an All-American and an NFL draft pick. More important than him being named all-conference for the third time, Lamb said, is that Bell was voted by his teammates to be one of their three captains.
“If you would have asked me last year if he would ever be one of our captains,” Lamb said, “I would have said, ‘No way.’ He’s really changed. He’s a leader for us.”
Bell graded out at 88 percent last season against No. 11 Georgia Southern and 87 percent against No. 14 Elon, but his best game was against Wofford when he was successful on 89.5 percent of his blocks.
“I hope he has a great year,” Lamb said, “and all the Clemson and South Carolina people say, ‘Why didn’t we recruit him? He was right there in Spartanburg.’ ”
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