41 days until AZ Football- Top 50 player count down- NO.41 Marcus Bell

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NO.41 Marcus Bell

Position, years at Arizona: Linebacker, 1996-1999

Honors, accomplishments at UA: Earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors in 1998 and second-team mention in 1999. ... Led Pac-10 in tackles in 1998 (11.6 per game) and 1999 (10.3 per game).

Why he made our list: Coach Dick Tomey, in a 1999 season preview story in Sports Illustrated, called Bell "the best linebacker we've ever had here. He's a tenacious competitor, and he runs like a defensive back." Bell was coming off a season in which he made 139 tackles, the most for a player during Tomey's tenure (1987-2000).

Bell, from tiny St. John's High in the White Mountains, was lightly recruited despite being named All-Arizona by The Republic. Tomey and assistant Rich Ellerson offered Bell a scholarship after noting his aggressiveness during a wrestling match at St. John's. Bell was a state champ in wrestling and played on football teams that went 44-0 at St. John's.

"Committed," Tomey told TucsonCitizen.com, describing Bell. "He was all in. He was clearly under the radar, but he was a dominant player at the high school level. He was just so committed to excellence, and he had enough ability that he continued that in college."


Bell was the starting middle linebacker at UA for three seasons, finishing with 405 tackles, fifth-best on UA's career list. He had 14 tackles for a loss in each of his final two seasons.

Bell twice had 21 tackles in a game — against Washington and Arizona State in 1998.

Life after college: The Seattle Seahawks selected Bell in the fourth round of the 2000 NFL draft, and he played in 45 games over the next three seasons, mostly as a reserve, making 86 tackles. Cut during 2003 camp, Bell spent that season as a volunteer assistant coach at Tucson Sunnyside High, which won the state Class 4A championship.

Bell signed on in January 2004 to be the defensive graduate assistant on Mike Stoops' first staff at Arizona, but another NFL opportunity came calling with the Houston Texans in March. Bell's NFL career ended after he was placed on injured reserve after suffering an injury in a preseason game.

Bell resumed his coaching career, and he's entering his third season as head coach at Eager Round Valley High, a St. John's rival.

Courtesy of Anthony Gimino
Tucsoncitizen.com