bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 0:00

Welcome to Trackin the Cats. This is the fourth episode. I'm Bob Saban, accompanied with Steve White. And as always, we are sponsored by Stanbury Insurance on Main Street in Silva. Today, we are excited to announce that we've got Coach Kerwin Bell. Head coach of the Catamount football team, We like to do things a little bit differently and focus on personalities. And I'm going to go ahead and let Steve ask the first question.

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 0:31

Well, I go back with Coach Bell. Now he wouldn't remember this, but this was back in 1984. When, before he became the starting quarterback at the University of Florida, and they were in the process of hiring someone to help Norm Carlson with the football operation. I was sports information director here at Western at the time, came down and interviewed and they gave the job to a guy from the University of Michigan. John and I came back to Western Carolina and of course worked another 50 years before I retired around the turn of the century. But Coach Bell, everybody knows he was the Southern Conference player, the excuse me, Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 1984, 14 years in professional football. And, of course, has been very successful coach now for pushing into two decades. So coach I know I know I've got a Florida background. I grew up down in central Florida, down in Marion County. And, of course, knew know a lot about your career. and everything and came from a very small town like me. You were up in Mayo and I was down the Somerfield Wearsdale area. So we have some connections there. Coach I would looking back at asking maybe a first question here, maybe a comparison going back to when you were Jacksonville and Valdosta State. The first three years here, three years now at Western Carolina. How do you maybe compare your program now to where you were at those schools at Jacksonville and Valdosta State? Maybe the status of your program. Are you further along, about the same, what have you?

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 2:12

That's that's a real good question, Steve. But I think, you know, if you compare Jacksonville, we were. were 3 and 8 the 1st year had taken over a pretty tough program. There had never had a winning season. They had 10 years of football. Really? They were a young program, new program. so you know, we went and went 3 and 8 the next year. We started out 1 and 3. I remember coming back on a. trip and we're lost our 3rd game and I'm like, goodness, you know, we don't be able to turn this around then we round up clicking off 9 straight win or 8 straight wins and finished up 9 and 3 or 9 and 4 actually lost the last game of the season, but 18 in a row and I won the conference, the Pioneer Football League conference, so that sort of turned that program around was that year 2. About us, the state, you know, is year three, year two for us was six and five seasons, six and four. And then we turned to come back the next year after playing a lot of freshmen and young kids and see them start to develop. And then we went 14 and 0 in that 3rd year, won the national championship. I feel like that's more of where we're heading. The Valdosta State years sort of remind me where we're at right now. And that we had all these young kids that we've developed and they're starting to grow up. We found a quarterback that can, I think, win us a championship. and so now I think we're at that stage where we were in 2018 Dallas Estate. think we can make a run. I really think we've got a lot of talented players on this football team. We got to stay healthy. But I really like where we're at heading into year four, you know, as far as our program's concerned.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 3:55

That's that's great to hear. I'm excited than ever this year, particularly hearing about the scrimmages and stuff that we've gotten started. Tell me a little bit about how did you decide to end up at Western when got first got the call? What was it like evaluating the opportunity to come to Western Carolina and color week?

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 4:19

Well, you know, first of all, I had a chance to I think that the search committee had put me up pretty high in the, in the search from what I understand that they had sort of used. And and so Alex called me and we had a chance to speak on the phone and I had known actually the Chancellor back when she had taken over at Valdosta State for a little while as an intern back when I was at Valdosta State my 1st year. So I knew Chancellor Brown and then You know, having a chance to meet Alex we really hit it off and, you know, I interviewed and he invited me up. And then once he invited me up here, and I seen, seen sort of the layout of the land and seeing the facilities and just this the atmosphere that's here. I felt like this is perfect place for me. We love small towns, me and my wife, we grew up in a. Mayo, Florida, which is one red light town. and so we we really fell in love with the place and fell in love with the people too. Felt like, you know, we had, I think as a head football coach, know, that athlete director, that chancellor or president has to be, we all have to be aligned. And I felt like we were going to be that, you know, it wasn't like he was coming somewhere where they had been here 15 or 20 years. And now they're saying they're going to turn things around. You know, they had just got here. Also. you can tell this was the place that was really going to take off and it was going to give you a chance to be successful. And, and I've always been the kind of guy I love, I love you know, going out and being challenged and, and you know, taking on these challenges like this, and I felt like we had it set up here with the chancellor and the, and the AD to get it done.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 5:52

That's great. Well you're actually making a step up color. We is a two red light town. So

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 5:59

Yeah,

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 6:00

Well, that's a, that's a lot more than we used to have. We only had a caution light up at Joyner Square when I came here a long time ago. We're making progress. Coach maybe Nick talking about comparisons and everything. The team that you'll put on the field next Thursday night, a week from Thursday night at N. C. State. Maybe comparing this team at this point to last season, seven and 14, a nationally ranked squad. Of course, I know everybody's thinking about that and hey, are we ready to take the next step up? Maybe compare the teams last year at this time to this year's team at this time.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 6:44

I told our team and what we sort of been talking about since January was it's our time. And what we mean by that to our team is that, know, last year going into the season and the prior season, we knew we weren't quite as good. You know, I didn't think we were as a football team because we weren't We didn't have the veteran leadership. We hadn't been through some tough moments. We hadn't grown as a football team. We had experienced some of the highs and lows. I think you had the experience to develop as a championship football team. I thought there was other teams that probably a little bit better off than we were going into net last year, which was Furman, you know, with 40 something seniors, Mercer had been together as a football program for two or three years building their program which was ahead of us and then Chattanooga, you know, Going one and two against those teams. And, but we knew going into the season, we had to find a way to catch those guys. They were, I thought they were just a build a little bit better than we were at that stage, a little bit more veteran leadership. And we knew we had to catch up somehow. And I thought we was close to getting there year, going into the off season, like I told this football team. There's no excuses. We, we are now a veteran team. We, we've had some tough losses. We've had some great wins. we've now got an established veteran quarterback, a quarterback who's won the player of the year in this conference. And we, I think our office of line was great last year. I talked about them being a top 10 FCS office of line, which I thought they were. we had eight out of our 11 get hurt after that last game. We had eight of 11 starters or eight of the top 11 players on the office line was hurt during the season. So really damaged us a lot having that many up front. But, you know, we come back this year and you could say compared to two teams, I think we're just as good on the office of line now. we were last year, maybe even deeper because of the guys who had to play last year. We've got a lot of guys with some experience. think our defensive line now has caught up. I think they're up there and now can go be a positive for us up front on the defensive side of the ball. And then you add that quarterback who's now a veteran, who's got two years left, who is player of the year. So now you've got that guy who we know is the leader of this football team. I think those little, those three things, O line, D line. The way we've come together as, as those two that are positives now for our program. And then you add the quarterback that's coming back off a player of the year. I think that tells us we're a lot better program. I think, and then I think adding our coaching staff, you know, we lost some people, but I thought for the most part, when you had Jerry Odom as our defensive coordinator, we are a much more balanced program than we've been any other time that we've been here. What I mean by that. I think, you know, we've always been a great on offense, but I think now you add the defense. we can out there this year, special teams, I think we're much more balanced football team in all three phases as far as our players and our coaching staff. And that's what has me excited.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 9:46

well, I remember you telling Daniel hooker after that last game last year, it may be a good thing that we lost and didn't get into the playoffs. Cause we were so banged up that we might've got embarrassed in the first round and that would have been a shame, but talking a little bit about Coach Odom, can you give us a little more background on him? I mean, social media wise, he's a lot of fun to watch. But tell us a little bit more about Jerry.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 10:12

Well, Jerry and I met each other. He was, I was a senior at University of Florida and he came in with the number 1 team. Recruiting class and FBS football division 1 football. That year it was him and Emmett Smith. There was a lot of good players in that freshman class that we had their University of Florida, which was my senior year. So I got a chance to play with him for 1 year you know, Jerry was a guy who was just a. His dad was one of the greatest coaches, high school coaches in Florida history, down in Merritt Island, coached for many years, won a lot of games. So Jerry's grown up around football. He wasn't a real big guy, but he played at the University of Florida, started there three, three years at least, he was such a great, smart football player and tough made a lot of plays. And so he brings that just competitive fire. That I think you had to have as a defensive coordinator. The other thing is, you know, I thought last year I started noticing that we sort of had there was answers or questions that we were trying to answer maybe after the fact, we might go into the game after the game and say, oh, we should have done this or that. I felt like when Jerry was available, I knew he was going to bring that same, same ability that we have on offense in that he's had that system in place for 20 years now, just like I have on offense. So we already know the answers before the questions are asked. So we can make those adjustments in a timely manner. And I wanted somebody on that side of the ball that, that could keep our guys at the level we were on, on offense and hold them accountable and teach them how to play the game the right way. And I think he's they'll bring all that to, to Western Carolina.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 11:54

That's great, Steve.

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 11:55

Bob, I'll tell you how old I am. I played against his dad, Gerald Odom, Coach Jerry Odom's dad,

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 12:02

Yep.

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 12:02

Moscow. And it was not a good experience. After, I think the first time he hit me, I was five yards in the backfield, backward, going backwards. So that tells you, coach, I just wanted to talk about this non conference schedule. We've four consecutive non conference games to open the season three on the road. I think it's tough a non conference schedules. I can remember decades here at Western. The pluses and minuses of maybe playing this type of competition before your conference schedule.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 12:38

Yeah, a lot of people said, man, your schedule so tough. I said, Hey, let's embrace this. I thought it's our team. Let's embrace able to go play some really good football teams because going to make us better. You know, and I love the way it's set up, you know, even though it is a tough schedule, those first four games, I can't think. So tell us a lot about our football team. I think we're going to improve greatly in those 1st, 4 games in North Carolina state. Eli is a top 25 team. We got to go to Eli Campbell's a new program. It's got a lot of ability, a lot of players, good athletes on their team. And then, you know, going out to Montana in that environment. and playing a good football team like Montana. But what I love about that schedule is to have those four teams. I think we'll know a lot about our football team. I think we'll improve a great deal with that first four weeks. Then we get an open week, a bye week, to get ourself back and get ourself healthy. And then we got a run of the SoCon. And I think at that time we'll be a really good football team and hopefully make a big run for the SoCon championship.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 13:40

Well, I know I am going to be bringing my family to that Montana game. We're going to have 10 people out in Missoula. So

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 13:49

Oh

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 13:50

much looking forward to getting out and, and seeing us there. And sounds like we've. Sold the ticket allotment that we got.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 13:59

yeah, I think there's a lot of people going out. It's, it's crazy. I think we've gotta have a lot of support out there. I heard that that atmosphere is tremendous and so it's gonna be a great experience for, for our kids.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 14:09

That's good. So we talked a little bit about the offensive coordinator. You know, the I mean, the defensive coordinator, you know, the offensive coordinator pretty well.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 14:19

Yeah. Ryland Wells is Doug Dickey's grandson. Coach Dickey was a former Tennessee head coach, university of Tennessee. He was, you know, university of Florida head coach this is his grandson. He, recruiting back at Jacksonville University. Cade, my son was the quarterback there. I recruited him as a backup there behind Cade. He was a year or two behind Cade. then he wound up taking over and being a two year started there. After K graduated, so Rollin knows our system. He's been in it as a player, just like you Cade was and then the last 3 years, he's been our tight end coach here and and done a tremendous job for us. He really helped Cade a lot with game plans and helping Cade put together the game plans the last 3 years. So I just felt like it was a natural. about going back maybe and doing it myself. But I love the fact that I can turn it over to somebody like him, who understands what I want, just like Cade. he understands there's certain things I don't, I stand for, that we're going to be good at on that side of the ball. And then just let him sort of have the creative, you know, ability to go. Put together what he expects to get done, but understanding what our philosophy is, and he knows what I expect, what I need and what I'm going to demand on this side of the ball. And so I have been pleasantly surprised, not surprised, but just satisfied with what he's done this off season. He's, you know, he's never been a coordinator, so I didn't know how he would take on that role, but man, he has been organized. He's been very, uh, proficient in everything that he's, he does. He's motivated to players in a really great way. I love the way he motivates them. And so I think we've got a big time coach on, on that side of the ball. And I'm, you know, we, Kyle Dickey is a guy we brought in. He was a former quarterback has, has already been a play caller for two or three years now on the college level. So we've got him sort of taken on Rylan's role from the last three years. So he's helping Rylan a lot, just like Rylan helped Cade. I think with, with those two, we're going to put together another top five. Offense in the country. I think we have that ability.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 16:29

That's great.

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 16:31

Coach, you talking about quarterbacks watching the last couple of scrimmages. Of course, everybody knows about Cole Gonzalez, his credentials for the player of the year last year in the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year. But I'll tell you one thing, you've got some insurance policies now, you've got some debt, watching the Jefferson Boas to transfer from Carolina. 672 40. And I was impressed the way he could throw the football and then watching a lot. You're tearing. Dickens was a heck of an athlete, but boy, I'm really impressed with him throwing the football. And then you got Bennett Judy. I mean, you've got four good looking quarterbacks right there with some some of them not much experience, but the talent level is tremendous as far as what I'm observing.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 17:19

Well, we, you know, we felt like in this offense, you got to have quarterbacks. You got to have guys that can play and go out and perform and be efficient. And we talk about being a hall of fame point guard, because we do, we want you to be able to distribute the ball at a very high, efficient, high efficiency rate to our great skill players that we're going to put you around and surround you with. You know, Jefferson was a guy that. know, he had graduated three and a half years from Carolina, had always been the third guy sort of there. They've had some great quarterbacks, you know, through Carolina the last few years, but wanted to go play. And so I didn't know if we just don't have a big chance at him. but this was one time I think our offense made a difference, you know, also being in Carolina, he wanted to stay in the state he's from North Carolina, he also had heard from other coaches. College coaches had told him, man, this is the system you want to play in. This is where you would fit. It's a great system. You'll put up big numbers and he came here with, you know, because I didn't think we'd have a chance because Cole, you know, I had to be honest with him. I said, Cole's my guy right now. You know, he's player of the year. he's coming back, you know, you'll compete for the backup job. but you'll be one play away and you never know what could happen. And so he took that as a challenge. And, and I told him we had two young guys. We really like, like you say, the two redshirt freshmen we think are very talented. so it's been sort of a big battle between all three of them for the backup job. But I, I really like, glad we got Jefferson because he's added that experience, know, that we needed. On that roster, but I feel really good and comfortable at the going through now's training camp with all four of those guys. And I think we've got a really good room. we've got four capable guys that can go out, all go out and perform in this offense.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 19:08

So you've got some transfers that have come in and I know there's pluses and minuses to the transfer portal. How do you as coach and your staff look at those pluses and minuses? Because the transfer portal has changed the game so much in the last couple of years.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 19:31

Well, I think the portal has helped people in certain ways, right? I think some people, I think Sanford has really helped them because they have a great master's program, graduate school. And so they're able to attract being a private school and, and they've been able to attract some really good year guys, grad students that's really helped. I think their program For us, it's been more, we felt like it's helped us. We, we found our niche was to go. Recruiting high school kids, right? So it'll take a bit, a little bit longer, but that's who I am. I develop players. I love to develop players. I love to get them in our system and see them grow into great young men and really good football players. And so we sort of went that route. And if you think about it, just the natural thing tells you, Hey, if all of these schools, especially FBS schools. Are getting 10 players from high school instead of 20 because the other 10 they're getting in the portal that leaves a lot of talented players out there that we have a chance to go and hopefully recruit I think we've done that the last three years. We've recruited some really high end fcs Maybe fbs type players that got dropped it's taken a while because they're young and we're developing them now though instead of having freshmen and sophomores We got juniors and seniors You know, we're starting to get that veteran leadership and getting those guys developed their bodies because they're older people, older players. But for us, you know, that's sort of what we made our, our, I think that's the, the, I think everywhere you go, got to make sure you find out where your strengths and weaknesses are. If you're going to develop a great program. And just because I did it one way about us, state or Jacksonville, don't mean you do it the same way here. You got to find your, your strengths. Your strengths and your niche. And I thought ours was going out and continue to, to, to, you know, recruit high school players and then compliment. The, the areas that we needed with some portal guys. And so what we've done, you know, let's say we've got some linebackers we think are really good players at that Mike position, that middle linebacker position, but they're both freshmen and sophomores, like redshirt freshmen, sophomores are young. They hadn't played a lot of football. So we brought in Wesley Scott, a guy who knows the system. Who's made a lot of tackles in the system, but all conference player. a senior. So we needed to just compliment that position with a veteran guy. And so we went out and got him in the portal. And so we've done that at three or four positions. D tackle. We felt like we needed a couple of experienced guys to help with depth there, while our young guys continue to grow. So we went out and got some guys there. So we've complimented with the portal. The portals helped us compliment certain areas that we needed some veteran leadership. And I think it's done. It's been good for us. We, you know, we lost a couple of guys last year. My son took a couple when he went to Pittsburgh and they were going to leave anyway. They were very talented kids, but I think the way you, you make people say, oh, the portals don't ruin you. Well, yeah. What I try to do as a coach is just make sure I got guys ready to go behind them. You know what I'm saying? Always have your depth chart where if that starter leaves, I got two or three more I can pick from. And case shows you here, like, we lost, Probably one of the best tailbacks in FCS, Desmond Reed, who went to Pittsburgh. was one of the top receivers. He goes to Pitt. They both gonna play, maybe start there. Talk to my son. yet, yet we did not, we did not go out and get another running back or receiver at those two positions. You know why? Because our room's loaded. We don't, and that's what I told our room. I don't need to go get nobody else. I believe in the guys we got in that room. We got some very good football players still left in that room. Yeah. Both of those rooms, and I think if we do that, keep continue to have that kind of depth, can, we can afford to lose 1 here and there and continue to be a good program.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 23:26

That's great. It looks like you're using the portal strategically then.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 23:31

Yeah,

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 23:32

Steve.

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 23:33

Coach, going back to the I know the college landscape, football landscapes changes dramatically since you played. It's over the years. It's evolved in the last couple of years. It's just dramatic change. What would you be asking for now? For the N. I. L. If you were still playing, Yeah,

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 23:55

wish that was the case back then. I might be retired by now. You know no, yeah, because, you know, I started as a freshman, so I probably could have made quite a bit of money after that freshman year. But,

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 24:06

who's

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 24:06

no, I, you know, I'm old school though, you know, Steve is that I just felt like, you know, to be I love the way it was when I played ball because it was all about getting your degree. You know, being a student athlete, University of Florida gave me a chance to go play and compete. And then if I was good enough, which I was on that borderline of being good enough to go play then in the NFL and played 13 years professionally, then I had my opportunity to do that. But college football to me was all about tradition and and just being a I would never think about leaving there and playing for somebody else. And so I'm sort of old school and all that. But you know, as head coaches, even though we are old school, we have to, we have to change the way we do things. You know, we have to understand that no longer do you have a kid for four years, you know, and he can't, he really don't go nowhere else. He, you know, we have kids going three and four places in four years. So I think you had to make sure that you, that you Develop these kids and that they understand what we're doing and where we want to go as a program and hopefully they buy into that they accept that and they want to be a part of that. And I think, I think we've done a good job with that. I think we've, I think every man to a man on our roster, everyone I'm going to tell you when you ask them what, what do they want to accomplish here? said, man, I don't want to leave here until I win a Southern Conference Championship. I want to be one of the first people to do that, you know, and we've sort of built that up, how special that would be. And And because of that, I don't think, you know, we hadn't had many guys leave. And I think that's been good for our program.

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 25:40

And plus, Coach, you probably, if, had you left to take another deal at that time, you wouldn't have married the head majorette of the Florida Gators.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 25:51

Well, you know, I, I sort of had her tied up since kindergarten.

steve-white_3_08-20-2024_112951: 25:55

That's right.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 25:57

great.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 25:57

said, well, we knew each other since kindergarten. It was a little, you know, small school. We had 49 people in our class, Steve. So I tell people all the time, I look at her, I said, you know, I didn't have a lot to pick from. So we only had 49 people. she looked at me and said, well, I didn't have a lot to pick from either. I said, you're right.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 26:16

Well, that's great. Coach, we really enjoyed the time today. This has been great. We appreciate you coming on and joining us. Tracking the Cats is about all things catamounts and we'll have another episode coming up soon. But in the meantime, it's been a great day. We're looking forward to this season. I'm excited to see how you guys do out on the field and looking forward to be able to maybe talking to you later in the season or in the post season.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 26:45

Yeah, that sounds good. That's, that's good. A postseason deal for sure. We you know, I, I tell you what I, I, I hope this football team we can stay healthy. I, I it was one of the most disappointing you was Steve had asked about, you know, sort of the, where we were at in our third, now, fourth year. I felt like, man, last year was starting to look when we were five and one, right? We lost Arkansas, but won won a couple of really tough games there where we won in the last seconds. I thought, man, if we could stay healthy. I felt like that team was sort of on that same path as us going and winning national championship in our third year. Same time zone, third year at Valdosta State, we went 14 0, won the national championship. I started to see, you know, our quarterback was starting to play good. We had really good players around. Defensively, we weren't quite where we wanted to be, but man, I thought we were, we were starting to trend in that direction. And man, and, you know, I never try to make excuse. I'm just telling you what I felt is that I thought we were on that track that we could have dense up special last year. And I was so disappointed because we were down to 8 of our top 11 office alignment or hurt. You know? Third string quarterback in that last game, third string tailback. I just, at the end of the season, I was so upset that we didn't, these players didn't get what we really deserved out of that season. You know, if we could have just stayed relatively healthy, man, I thought we could have made a little run in the playoffs and, and done some special things, but Hey, that's another, that's sort of some experience that we can draw from, that's some of the things that you had to go through to build a program and to build it the right way. Jordan didn't just win a championship. He went through a lot of tough losses to Detroit Pistons before he became a champion. I think you had the experience. I think you had to grow as a team and develop as a team going through those kinds of experiences. And I think that's going to help us this year. I just want us to stay healthy. I think if we do, then you know, we'll be there at the end of the year with a chance, I think, to, to make a run.

bob-sabin_3_08-20-2024_112952: 28:45

Well I know I'll look forward to seeing you in Missoula and seeing the catamounts throughout the season. And we've really enjoyed this, this version of tracking the cats. Brought to you as always by Stanbury Insurance on Main Street in Silva for all your insurance needs. Thanks again, coach. Thanks, Steve. It's been a great great half hour.

kerwin-bell_1_08-20-2024_112952: 29:06

All right. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.