Anyone who watched Naperville North quarterback Jacob Bell’s sensational senior season knew he would be a hot commodity on the recruiting trail.
Bell committed to Ball State over the summer, before he threw for 3,075 yards and 38 touchdowns. Even opposing coaches said he could play in a bigger college program.
But nothing was certain.
“We were hoping that way, but we wouldn’t have been shocked if we didn’t have something come about,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “With this new recruiting world, nothing is surprising.
“When they’re letting 24-, 25-, 26-year-olds still play college football, it becomes really tough for a high school kid. You better be a really good player to be one of those kids that gets a scholarship offer nowadays.”
Bell is one of those kids. Three days after taking an official visit to Indiana, Bell committed to the College Football Playoff participant on Tuesday and announced it Wednesday.
“It was a relatively unique process for me,” Bell said. “I’ve known Indiana’s staff for a good amount of time, talked to them on and off.
“A couple weeks back, they called me up, asked for some of my information, said that an opportunity may be available.”
Drendel said that opened up when another quarterback recruit chose to go elsewhere.
“They thought they had one of the top five kids in the country, who flipped in December, and then they realized they need to go get a good guy,” Drendel said. “Jacob had visited them before.
“When they really started to dig in on Jacob, they really started liking what they saw, and it became apparent in their mind they felt like he was one of the top kids out there, so go get him.”
Bell said he liked what he saw during his official visit to Bloomington last weekend. No. 10 Indiana had just lost 27-17 to No. 7 Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Dec. 20.
“It was the day after the game against Notre Dame in the college football playoffs, so that was pretty cool to be around that event,” he said. “It was a quick process, but I definitely saw everything I needed to see, met the right people and things like that.”
Bell will be joining a program on the rise. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who is The Associated Press national coach of the year, led the Hoosiers (11-2) to a school-record number of wins and into the playoffs for the first time.
“It’s absolutely awesome,” Bell said. “With how successful that coaching staff is right now and they’re going to be around for a very long time, just signed an extension, it’s just a pretty stable situation in the midst of all the chaos of college football.
“It’s definitely something that I’m excited to get into and a program that I’m excited to be a part of.”
The chaos in college sports has been caused by the transfer portal and the evolving dynamic of compensation for student-athletes’ name, image and likeness. It has made the recruiting process more difficult for high school players.
But Bell, whose older brother Jon is a backup quarterback at South Dakota State, didn’t fret.
“Having a brother that’s a college athlete right now, I kind of have a bigger insight into how that stuff works with the portal and some of the demands that schools have,” Bell said. “I didn’t get frustrated with it. I tried to understand it and just be patient with the process, and it ended up paying off.”
Indiana has a robust NIL program. Bell said the school’s donors are involved, and he is aware of the opportunities.
“Obviously, with the new landscape of college football, it’s a part of it,” he said. “The smart thing to do is always to try to build off of it and build your brand.
“That didn’t weigh anything into my commitment. I just knew that they play a brand of football that I like and (offer) a great education, so it was kind of a hard opportunity to pass up.”
Bell, who intends to major in business, will do his due diligence to maximize his earning potential.
“For sure,” he said. “Once I get into college and get closer to possibly earning a starting spot, that will be definitely be something I put more focus into.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
