The University of Wisconsin football coaching staff under head coach Paul Chryst has shown a knack for not leaving many stones unturned on the recruiting trail. One of those stones is the selected targeting of collegiate transfers.
Chryst and Co. entered the 2016 season having added two key transfers in former Pitt running back Chris James and former Hawaii cornerback Nick Nelson. Those two additions help solve some serious depth and experience issues that will happen following the 2016 season at both positions.
On Thursday, Wisconsin looked to the state of Alabama and added former Crimson Tide linebacker Christian Bell to the mix. He’ll also sit out this upcoming season and be slotted in at outside linebacker in UW’s 3-4 defense.
His addition is a bit different though, as Bell grey shirted this past season and didn’t arrive on campus until this January. Bell will join the Badgers with all of his eligibility remaining. He also comes to Wisconsin as a very familiar name to the coaching staff, who recruiting him hard out of high school, and to one teammate in particular — Bradrick Shaw.
The redshirt freshman running back was his teammate at Hoover High School in Alabama. Bell was a 3-star recruit and had offers from the likes of Louisville, Mississippi State, Nebraska and UCLA to name a few.
Wisconsin also got involved in his recruitment late in the process, too late for him to pass up any offer he got from the home-state team.
Adding Bell to the outside linebacker group is certainly an intriguing move for the future, as Wisconsin will face life without Vince Biegel next season and has a whole lot of unproven talent behind him on the depth chart.
Wisconsin will also loose T.J. Watt following the 2017 season and Biegel’s expected primary backup this season, Garrett Dooley, as well that year. It means Bell, along with names like Zack Baun, Noah Burks, Griffin Grady and Keldric Preston are going to be thrown to the wolves come 2018.
Competition is going to be fierce, but clearly the staff believes in Bell’s talent or they wouldn’t have added him over another linebacker for the last open spot in the 2017 recruiting class.
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