Sooner QB Bell 'came to win championships,' prepared to 'fight it out' behind Jones
Published: 12/29/2010 6:44 PM
Last Modified: 12/29/2010 6:44 PM
PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — One of the great things about covering a bowl game is that most bowls have a “Media Day,” during which the bowl mandates that every player be made available for media interviews.
Every player.
First on my list was freshman quarterback Blake Bell.
Bell is off-limits to media interviews during the regular season, per Oklahoma’s policy that prohibits talking to first-year freshmen. So given this opportunity, I yanked him out of a crowd of backups, freshmen and walk-ons and asked he and backup Drew Allen a series of questions about their future.
Bell, a five-star, dual-threat quarterback, told me during a visit to his Wichita home last summer that if Landry Jones firmly entrenched himself as the Sooners’ starter this season — which it appears that Jones has — he didn’t expect that he’d want to transfer away for the purpose of playing somewhere else, as opposed to redshirting, then sitting behind Jones for two years.
During this season, talk radio and message boards buzzed with unsubstantiated rumors that Bell wanted to transfer. Two weeks ago, he posted on Facebook that he never had any intention of transferring.
On Wednesday, I asked Bell if he still felt that way. He does.
Bell and Allen said “you never know when you’re gonna get your chance” and that they were close friends with and very proud of Jones’ accomplishments, and that they had learned much from Jones’ tireless work ethic in the film and meeting room.
The whole scene reminded me of the 2004 Orange Bowl, when I spoke with Tommy Grady about the impending quarterback battle between himself, Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar. Grady told me that sunny day in South Florida that he would indeed transfer if he didn’t win the job, and seven months later he left for Utah.
Bell and Allen are prepared to sit, though they said they don’t think about it.
Bell said he knew Jones was the starter when he got to Norman, and said the notion of leaving isn’t an option for him. He came to compete, and he came to win, and he’ll do both as a Sooner, he said.
“We came here to Oklahoma to win championships,” Bell said. “At some other schools, they’re celebrating Christmas break right now with their family because they’re not at a bowl game. We came here to win championships. That’s part of it, competing for a job. Landry’s doing a great job, and he’ll do a great job next year. But we all just have to fight it out and be behind him. Like Drew said, anything can happen.”
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
