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 Friday, December 13, 2002
The Bell tolls for Atrews
By Marc Connolly
BCSfootball.com
MIAMI -- After his three catches for 66 yards and a touchdown against the
Florida Gators on Nov. 18 helped secure Florida State's third straight
appearance in the national title game, all Atrews Bell could do was stare
at the locker five feet across from him.
|  | | Atrews Bell was second on the team with 10 TD receptions this season. |
He didn't say a word as he
smiled at his teammate, Snoop Minnis, while Minnis recounted his two
touchdown
catches and 187 yards receiving for an endless stream of reporters and
Seminole hangers-on.
When approached by a reporter wearing a "penny for your
thoughts" look, Bell explained.
"I was just so proud of Snoop," said Bell, a junior flanker whose 10
touchdown receptions trail Minnis for the team lead by one. "He was the
next in line after (Peter) Warrick left, and he has come through. We
(receivers) all know that our turn to shine will come soon enough, but it's
Snoop's turn this year."
Ah, but little did Bell know that Minnis would carry his celebration through
the last few weeks of classes and lose his eligibility to play in the FedEx
Orange Bowl against Oklahoma on Wednesday (ABC, 8 p.m. ET). His "time"
came sooner than he thought.
"No one expected Snoop not to be playing," said Bell, who caught 37 passes
for 675 yards this fall. "It was a surprise even to the coaches. But I've
just always prepared myself like I was a starter here. I mean, I walked on
here, and I knew that in order for me to get onto the field I'd have to work
extra harder than the next guy beside me because my road would be tougher."
It's hard to imagine it now, with him being a factor in whether or not FSU
repeats as national champion, but Bell recanted the truth when he mentioned
walking on the Seminoles squad back in fall of 1997. And it was before he'd
ever played the role of pass-catcher at any level of football. In fact, he
terrorized high schools all over the Sunshine State at a position those in
Tallahassee know a thing or two about -- quarterback.
Receivers coach Jeff Bowden realized the athletic gifts Bell held long ago,
when he played for Lee High School, a two-hour drive east on I-10 from
Tallahassee.
"I've been watching Atrews since he was a sophomore in high school," said
Bowden. "As a quarterback, you could see him run around out there kind of
like a man amongst boys. He was just on a different level. The biggest knock
on him through his last few years of high school was always that he was an
underachiever."
Along with the stable of quarterbacks already in the mix, his work ethic was
one of the reasons Bowden didn't offer him a full scholarship, but rather an
invitation to walk-on.
"I took a risk, since I had scholarship offers to Marshall and Indiana, but
I really wanted to be here and play here," said Bell, who watched Edgar
Bennett and LeRoy Butler excel at FSU after playing at Lee several years
earlier.
Bell remembers gawking at the players he shared the field with those first
few days on campus -- studs such as Andre Wadsworth, who was already
a collegiate legend. Before the coaching staff even knew what position to
assign Bell to, suspensions were handed out to Pooh Bear Williams and Mario
Edwards,
which opened scholarships. With a free ride in hand, he was initially
thought to be part of FSU's vaunted secondary.
"The first week or so I was with Coach (Mickey) Andrews at safety," said the
5-foot-11, 201-pounder. "But I came in to get my stuff one day and the color
of my jersey switched. They said I was moving to receiver."
Not one person asked if he'd played there before, so there was no way Bell
was going to fess up that he was clueless. The younger Bowden said it wasn't
too hard to figure out, but he worked extremely closely with him through
that first redshirt year and again in 1998, even though he was nowhere in
Mark Richt's offensive plans.
"I was really hard on him his first two years," said Bowden, with the
classic family laugh. "That was to get him to realize the abilities he had.
I could see them, but he needed to see them and work harder than most to
bring them out."
"I was so low on the totem pole, it was incredible," said Bell, who caught
only two balls for 18 yards his freshman year and 14 for 202 as a sophomore.
That's when he rededicated himself to the sport that had previously come so
easily to him. He not only got his body in prime condition, but he studied
how teammates Ron Dugans and Warrick read coverages and managed
to get open.
"I just got so tired of watching games from the best seat in the house,"
said Bell, a Criminology major. "To play all week and not have a chance to
shine on Saturdays was very frustrating. If you asked me my biggest
accomplishment here just awhile ago, I'd say it was meeting coach (Bobby)
Bowden. I didn't think I'd get a chance to get on the field."
He's now considered a workaholic and has gained the respect of his
teammates.
"His heart is football and no one works harder than him," said roommate and
offensive tackle Todd Williams. "I'm happy for him to get the chance. He's
put his life into it and waited his turn. He deserves this."
It's paid off to the point where he admits to being in awe of his
accomplishments this fall, even though he hasn't been a regular starter.
"When I sit back and think of the stuff I've done this year, I'm really
amazed because Snoop has been the go-to guy," said Bell. "I've had 37
catches -- equate that to 10 touchdowns and that's pretty amazing to me.
"I was talking to Ron Dugans (who graduated last year, and now plays
receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals) the other day, and he was saying how I
scored more touchdowns in one year than he did his whole career. Those guys
talking about how proud they are of me means a lot, because they know how it
was when I got here."
He's taken a lot of those calls this week. The biggest being from Snoop --
one of his closest friends. His well-wishers and he have seen what people
have been saying:
Bobby Bowden: "We're going to play six, seven (receivers), so when we lose a
guy, we just take one of these guys and move him over here."
Bob Stoops: "It's (loss of Snoop Minnis) not going to change their game plan
one bit. Stick another guy in and I'm sure he's a quality player. They'll go
about their business as usual."
And they know who they are talking about mostly.
"This right here is a platform where I can raise my level of play and give a
preview of what it'll be like next year," said Bell. "It's national TV, the
national championship, I'm getting a chance to shine and I'm really, really
excited for it."
He's one of the main guys," said the elder Bowden. "And I'm very comfortable
with
Atrews being in that role this game. Very comfortable."
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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