[EKUAlum05]

Watched a couple Bell games and came away impressed and they actually slightly exceeded my expectations.

Stephany will be as good of an individual talent as Belfry has seen all year. He is truly dynamic and his passing ability is severely underrated. Keeping contain is paramount. Bell has two very good receivers with good size and great hands.

Baker is a solid back. Reminds me a little of Dustin May. Big back who runs hard. Maybe not as fast as May was. He can hurt you. The FB is what you expect from a Bell FB. Not the biggest playmaker but gets the job done and is a good lead blocker.

Bell’s Oline will be one of the bigger lines Belfry has seen. Not extremely athletic but big and strong and plenty capable.

Bell mixes up formations and mixes in tendencies. Lots of confidence in Stephany in the passing game and if it isn’t open he can tuck and run for N equally big gain. Pirate D is going to have to play fundamentally sound once more. You lose focus one time and Bell will exploit it.

Defensively, Bell has good size and plays hard nose but lacks a lot of speed. Expect them to make up for this by getting to create havoc. Linemen better get ready to be cut. Going to be a feast or fAmine night. If Belfry gets through the line big plays will be there to be had.

They have a really nice LB in #5. He reads plays wells and is a very sure tackler. Going to be a lunch bucket type of night with more trench warfare. Bell actually matches up better against Belfry than they would have against Desales on D. Desales would give them fits on the edge and against their secondary. Don’t expect it to be easy, but Belfry should make enough plays to score points.


Special Teams are pretty mediocre with the exception of Stephany as a returner. The teams are pretty equal here.

Overall, I think Belfry has a big advantage in team speed and a noticeable advantage in amount of total playmAkers. Bell has not seen a Defense comparable to Belfry and an Offense as physical as Belfry.

I think Bell will keep it tight. It will not be a walk in the park and I expect Bell to get their share of stops from loading the box.

It all comes down to keeping contain on D and making plays in the secondary against Bell’s deep passing game.

I like Belfry 34-22.