By Chris Beckham
VALDOSTA – Former Jacksonville University coach Kerwin Bell will be announced Friday as the ninth head coach in Valdosta State football history. Bell will replace David Dean, the school’s all-time winningest coach, who accepted the co-offensive coordinator’s position at Georgia Southern earlier in January.
Bell was 66-35 in nine years as the head coach of the Dolphins, including seven winning seasons. Despite the winning record, he had an awkward separation from the program when school officials decided not to renew his contract in December due to “philosophical differences.” Bell had been vocal about his wishes to move the non-scholarship program to a scholarship-based program, something the school’s administration was not in favor of.
A Live Oak, Fla. native, Bell started a prodigious football playing career at Lafayette County High in Mayo, where he was dubbed the “Throwin’ Mayoan.” He attended the Unversity of Florida and gained the starting quarterback spot as a redshirt freshman in 1984, leading the Gators to a 9-1-1 record and an SEC championship. He eventually became one of the few four-year starters in school history, garnering the SEC Player of the Year award in 1984 and was honorable mention All-American in 1985 and 1986.
He was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in 1988 and was also on the roster for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but never played for either team. He played for the Orlando Thunder of the World League of American Football and began a career in the Canadian Football League in 1993 and played for the Sacramento Gold Miners and Edmonton Eskimos before landing a spot on the Indianapolis Colts’ roster. In the next to last game of the 1996 season, he entered a game for the first time in his brief NFL career and completed all five of his passes, including a touchdown. With no other NFL passes ever attempted, he became the answer to an interesting NFL trivia question as the quarterback with the highest career passing rating in NFL history.
He returned to the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts and later played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He ended his playing career in 2001 and returned to Florida to coach Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala. His 2005 team won the Florida 2B state championship in 2005 and was the state runner-up in 2006. That success propelled him to the job at Jacksonville University.
Ironically, the head coaching position will not be Bell’s first dalliance with the Blazer program. Despite his high school success, he was not highly recruited and the only response he got from any program was from Valdosta State, which had just started a program. But VSU decided to concentrate more on junior college players. He then decided to walk on at the University of Florida and is now in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Bell interviewed with Valdosta State on Tuesday and reportedly decided to accept the job Thursday. When contacted Thursday, athletic department officials said rumors that Bell had accepted or that he had been offered the job were false. The school has made no official comment about the position but sources close to the program say an official press conference will be held next week to introduce Bell as the new head coach.
