The Cardinal Countdown: 46 Days Until Kickoff

#46 Darrian Bell

Class: Freshman

Ht/Wt: 6-0/220

Position: Linebacker

Hometown: Danville, KY

Twitter: @Dbeezy25

Thoughts: The Cards grabbed Darrian last year as a PWO out of Danville, KY, the same spot where former safeties coach Sha’Don Brown got started in his football journey both growing up in the city and playing for Danville as well. Brown was a solid connection for Darrian who turned down some DII offers to get a chance to play in the ACC. Darrian also has firsthand evidence that walk-ons have an equal shot to get some PT under this current staff as the rise of Haycraft, Marshon, Jack Fagot, and others have proved time and time again.

Darrian is high effort player who was part of the 2017 Danville State Championship team and finished his high school career with over 400 tackles. While he has added some weight since arriving on campus last year he appears to still have the speed that let him fly all over the field and find the ball on defense. So what do you do with a quick player that can lay some wood? [rings the special teams alarm aggressively] The plan is likely to let Bell get some time on special teams while continuing to learn from the older linebackers. While that position group is dominated by upperclassmen currently the window to make an impact will likely be in the next year or two. Keep an eye on Bell as he may have shot to crack that rotation in seasons to come.

Sweet Tweet:

If linebacker doesn’t work out for Darrian he can take his eating and fishing skills over to the offensive line…pretty sure that’s about 90% of the qualifications necessary.