Previously: 2022’s profiles, K Adam Samaha, K James Turner (Tr), S Brandyn Hillman, CB DJ Waller, CB Cameron Calhoun, CB Jyaire Hill, HSP/LB Jason Hewlett, LB Hayden Moore, LB Semaj Bridgeman, LB Ernest Hausmann (Tr), OLB Breeon Ishmail, DE Aymeric Koumba, DE Enow Etta, DE Josaiah Stewart (Tr), DT Brooks Bahr, DT Cameron Brandt, DT Trey Pierce, OT Evan Link, OT Myles Hinton (Tr), OT LaDarius Henderson (Tr), OG Nathan Efobi, IOL Amir Herring, OC Drake Nugent (Tr), TE Deakon Tonielli, TE Zack Marshall, TE AJ Barner (Tr), WR Kendrick Bell, WR Semaj Morgan, WR Fredrick Moore, WR Karmello English, RB Benjamin Hall, RB Cole Cabana

Kansas City (Park Hill), MO – 6'3''/180
		Rankings
		247	3.28* 6'3/180	3*, 86, NR Ovr #97 QB, #25 MO
		On3	3.70* 6'2/170	3*, 88, NR Ovr #24 QB, #12 MO
		Rivals	3.40* 6'3/180	3*, 5.6, NR Ovr #49 ATH, #24 MO
		ESPN	3.46* 6'2/170	3*, 77, #218 Midlands #19 DUAL, #21 MO
		Composites
		247	0.8689, #844 Ovr, #60 QB, #20 MO
		On3	85.45, #1034 Ovr, #53 QB, #22 MO
		MGo	3.48*, #713/804 Ovr, #81/85 WRs
		YMRMFSPA
		Donaven McCully (IU)
Other Suitors:	UMass, Northern Iowa
Previously on MGoBlog:	Hello by yours truly (12/15/2022).
Notes:	Brother of Ronnie Bell. Twin of Marqueas Bell. Simone Award.
Film
Senior Highlights: Hudl.

This is Ronnie's brother, so very Michigan fan is on board. That's good, since like Ronnie there isn't much from the scouting services to go on. Via an interview with Ronnie by Alejandro Zuniga, it was Ronnie himself who started showing his brother's tape to Michigan staff:

“I thought I was crazy,” Ronnie said. “Last year, it was his first time starting at quarterback or whatever, and I mean, dude, he was just going bananas. He had like five, six, touchdowns some games. So I showed Coach [Steve] Casula who was on staff last year. I'm like, ‘Yo, will you watch my little brother? Am I crazy or is he really, really good?’ Maybe I'm just biased because he’s my brother.

Casula (now back with Michigan as TEs coach) became the OC at UMass, and extended Kendrick his first offer in January. Michigan came along in September. Bell:

“Coach was telling me, ‘No, he's really good.’ And this year, he grew even more to became even stronger, more athletic, more comfortable, throwing — whatever, blah blah blah. Oh my gosh, he must have scored like freaking 20 touchdowns in the first four games or something crazy. And so then I showed Coach Harbaugh again because it was the same feeling I was feeling. It's like, ‘Am I crazy? Or is he like really good?’ And yeah, Coach Harbaugh loved him and offered him. So that was crazy how that all played out.”

We figured when he committed that a move to receiver—or possibly cornerback or safety—was in the future. Turns out Bell's quarterbacking career didn't survive fall camp. That's un-good news for the class's one nominal (non-transfer) quarterback recruit, but probably a good sign for Bell. When you figure out what position the rest of your life is, you want the rest of your life to start right away.

[After THE JUMP: Ronnie Bell's scouting report may be the most accurate?]

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He's Ronnie Bell's brother.

This isn't analysis, but endemic to articles ostensibly about Kendrick. Kendrick played quarterback in the same Missouri league, won the same Kansas City-area Heisman award, and cuts a similar silhouette. Even if you count comparisons between the leapy, athletic, skinny, and developmental brothers for the younger, scouting reports on Kendrick are between eight and fifty-three percent Ronnie.

Scout/Writer	Words on Ronnie	All Scouting	Ronnie%
EJ Holland initial	91	175	52%
Jim Harbaugh	59	116	51%
Austin Meek	296	855	35%
Kendrick Bell	209	649	32%
EJ Holland 2nd go	83	424	20%
HC Andrew Sims	73	498	15%
Ronnie Bell	15	590	3%

Fortunately the afore mentioned two-time captain has stepped up to guest author this piece.

“If I’m writing his recruiting profile, I’d say he’s a freaky athlete. Great size. I wish he’d have gave me like an inch or two. Great size. Arm talent is nice and he’s sneaky fast, man. Am I missing anything?

A player comp, guru reliability, variance, ceiling, projection, general excitement level,

I don't know if I'm missing anything. He’s got a lot of hair!”

Okay!

Freaky athlete

Here's Jim Harbaugh on what they liked.

Brother Kendrick, great athlete who loves to compete. And he’s told me he’s willing to play any position. So it could be quarterback, could be receiver, could be corner. He’s got the skillset to play all those. So, we’ll start him out at QB and we’ll roll from there. But extremely productive football player who’s very versatile.

That's it: Ronnie has a brother who's willing to be the quarterback, cornerback, or assistant pig-keeper.

He's a basketball player though so we can see the dunk and rate him on the HOLY SHIT

⁦@Ronnieb_8⁩ you think ⁦@kendrixkb8⁩ can give us this dunk tonight pic.twitter.com/3UQayqz44Z

— Aaron Bell (@abellboys) February 14, 2023

I give that four HOLY SHITs out of five.

Allen Trieu says "athletic" twice and quotes stats. They're impressive stats though.

athletic prospect who can project to other positions. He passed for 2,267 yards, rushed for 313 and scored 30 total touchdowns as a junior, and threw for 35 passing touchdowns and a 72% completion percentage as a senior.

In addition to football, Bell also competes in basketball where he was an all-district selection, and he also lettered in track and field as well.

Regarding track, HC Andrew Sims added Kendrick was a state qualifier in the high jump, a point EJ Holland was keen on as well.

Bell is also a standout in track and field, advancing to the state meet last year in the high jump. Bell, who self-reports a 4.6 40 time, also participates in the long jump, triple jump and 4×400.

Via the Zuniga interview, Harbaugh asked Bell to move to receiver early in August, to which he was immediately amenable.

In high school, Kendrick Bell showcased his athleticism on the gridiron and the hardwood. He earned the 2022 Thomas A. Simone Award, given to the best football player in the Kansas City area, while also appearing on the all-district basketball team and qualifying for state in track and field.

Bell expects the receiver position will offer more opportunities to demonstrate those talents.

“I will say it’s more freedom to jump around, show my athletic ability to go catch a ball,” he said.

Even before that, Bell was the one saying he's "athletic enough to play defensive back or wide receiver."

“Coach Harbaugh asked me where I see myself, and I told him I see myself helping the team win,” Bell said. “I’ll play anywhere on the field to help the team win. He said they’ll give me a shot (at quarterback) and if we can use you anywhere, we’ll do that. I was all for it.

Great size. I wish he’d have gave me like an inch or two.

Because Kendrick was coming in as the class's only quarterback, what little scouting seemed to focus there. But Sims offered his thoughts on Bell as a receiver…

At 6-foot-4 and [with a] 34-inch vertical and his knowledge of defensive coverages, he would definitely be a threat at wide receiver.

…to a couple of different outlets.

If for whatever reason quarterback doesn’t work out, you have a 6-foot-5 wide receiver that can jump out of the gym and snag every ball you can imagine. He’s not a burner. Few of those guys are ever like that. He’s going to need some work on his route running. I’m not sure how much of a burner his brother was, but Ronnie is super explosive and has a lot of fight in him. I think you’ll see the same thing out of Kendrick.

Ronnie ran a 4.54 at the combine, fwiw, but nobody coaching, say, Nico Collins, would have said "not a burner."

Arm talent is nice

A local scouting group, Six Star Football, was the lone outlet to really focus on Bell as a passer.

terrific athlete who moves well in and out of the pocket and excels at creating plays. He has an unorthodox delivery, but has a quick release and can deliver the ball at various arm angels [sic] making him dangerous when avoiding on-coming [sic] pass rushers.

Sims had Graham Mertz (that's whom Harbaugh was in town to recruit when he met the Bells) and thought Kendrick could be more effective, if certainly different kind.

His ability to extend plays and use his athleticism is phenomenal. At the same time, he doesn’t lack arm talent, either. There is a tremendous skillset to work with. He’s coming from this system where you have to identify coverages and make adjustments, but he’ll have to take that a step further at the next level.”

Touch the Banner dedicated his review to Bell at quarterback, and saw a guy who was still new to the position.

Despite questionable footwork, he has an impressive ability to throw with accuracy, touch, and decent velocity while moving to his left. His whip-like throwing motion allows him to make off-platform downfield throws, even when his feet aren’t set.

My issues with Bell as a quarterback do not stem from his physical abilities so much as his mechanics and decision making. He rarely makes early, quick decisions with the football, and instead, his entire highlight film is full of him making throws off schedule.

Oddly, TTB still rated Bell a 74, which is two points higher than the 72 he gave consensus 4-star Cole Cabana.

and he’s sneaky fast, man.

It's only Ronnie saying this, but it's good to hear. As mentioned above, Kendrick self-reports a 4.6 forty, which is less FAKE than my own self-reported 4.25. Thanks to the run on 6'3" leapers under Jeff Hecklinski I have a fair sample of tall receivers in my database, and there's a clear distinction of outcomes between those who could run or couldn't.

To the negative, EJ Holland thinks Bell's in the latter category.

Bell offers athletic upside and while he doesn’t have amazing speed, he’s a long strider that is capable of breaking long runs and making people miss in the open field.

The framing there was for a quarterback, by the way, but Holland did think Bell was likely to get faster in a conditioning program. Touch the Banner thought Bell would have to play safety or receiver.

He's got a lot of hair!

On top of his head or…

He was still a little small during COVID but then puberty smacks him in the face and he grows. And he turns into the 6-freaking-4 kid.

This might be a thing too. Kendrick was listed at 180 coming in, and looked pretty slim. He doesn't have a late birthday—April 2004 is on the earlier side—for the class, but if he grew six inches after turning 16 he's behind most of the athletes in his class, and thus probably a good bet to fill out more.

Etc. Excellent track athlete who advanced to states last year. Played AAU basketball and was 1st team all-district. Was on stage for Jaxon Smith-Njigba's draft selection last year, shoulda said "Go Blue!" into the hot mic.

Twin Marqueas actually went to Southeast Missouri State and has a Kenpom page. Older brother Ronnie Bell was two-time captain of Michigan teams that beat Ohio State 42-27 and 45-23 before going in the 7th round to the NFC champion 49ers.

Why Donaven McCully? McCully is the 6'5"/200 QB-turned-WR that Michigan unsuccessfully tried to poach from Indiana this offseason. Last year was McCully's first productive one since his switch, but productive it was, and wanted him badly we did. McCully had to play some quarterback (he started against Michigan!) in 2021, and it was as much of a disaster as starting Bell last year might have been.

I might also mention Tai Streets, a ludicrously athletic 6'4" scrawny kid who focused on basketball most of high school and came to receiver late. Streets wasn't his HS team's quarterback (that was a sophomore Antwaan Randle-El) nor the top football prospect in his city (that was Donovan McNabb), but he did lead his basketball team over Kevin Garnett's to reach the state finals. Streets was also a track star; he was a state long jump champion and a member of the 4x400 relay team that finished third in the state.

So okay, the speed thing was already there—Streets ran a 4.42 forty at the combine. I'm not writing "Taller Junior Hemingway" on a recruiting profile again.

Guru Reliability: Zero. Ronnie Bell was literally our best scout. And everybody's, apparently.

Variance: Massive. Most QB to WR transitions don't go well, even early (it's a lot harder than it looks), and most giant athletic leapy receivers don't do anything in college unless they can also (Nico Collins) run a 4.4.

Ceiling: High-minus. Already been through one position switch, but Bell is the least developed player in a class full of raw clay so who knows what they can make him into.

Flight Risk Level: Medium-low. Team guy who was willing to be whatever's asked, and brother of Ronnie friggin' Bell. On the other hand, Ben Herbert was a major factor in Bell's recruitment.

General Excitement Level: Moderate. Baseline 5: +1 for ATHLETE, -1 for "Not a burner", -1 for WR is harder than it looks,+1 for Donaven McCully!, -1 for this is the biggest shot in the dark in the class for a reason, +1 for if you're gonna reach, reach for Ronnie Bell's brother.

Projection: Already redshirted and moved to wide receiver last August. Six months at a complicated position like that isn't going to ready him for the field, so if we see him at all next fall it's a good sign for his future. Since Clemons left Michigan doesn't really have another receiver like him on the roster, give or take Peyton O'Leary. If he's going to pop, there's also a question whether Michigan will throw jump balls at him when previous iterations of this program didn't throw it to Nico enough. This working means he came on for 360- and 550-yard seasons down the line, right?