Jimmy Bell, Neal Brown to Talk Soon About Football Future

WVU men’s basketball big man Jimmy Bell has been practicing with the football team for a few weeks now during the spring session. WVU football head coach Neal Brown told the media after the spring game that he will talk with Bell as well as Bob Huggins in the coming days.

“[Jimmy] and I are going to spend some time early part of this week,” Brown said. “I’ll talk to coach [Bob] Huggins and I think we’ll come to a pretty quick resolution to where it all stands.”

WVU HC Neal Brown on Jimmy Bell’s progress. He feels he has shown ability but has mostly had direction in the midst of practices. He got beat on a sack when left alone in Spring game. Brown says he will talk early next week with Bob Huggins on plan for Bell’s future.

— Mike J. Asti (@MikeAsti11) April 22, 2023

It all started at the Big 12 Conference tournament in Kansas City in March when Bell and Huggins were approached by football scouts about the potential move. After the basketball season, the 6-foot-10 big man joined the football team for a trial run.

Bell participated in the fourth quarter of the spring game.

“He worked out for two weeks fundamentally. Today was his sixth practice, you see the improvement,” Brown said. “Today was probably the second time where somebody wasn’t out there telling him exactly what to do. He got beat for a sack today because he just didn’t set off the ball.”

Bell was recruited for football during high school but ultimately chose basketball in prep school. From there, Bell went to Saint Louis, then JUCO before committing to WVU in April 2022. Bell averaged 4.8 points and 5.2 rebounds for the Mountaineers this past season, starting in all 34 games.

Bell has two years of eligibility remaining for football but just his COVID option for basketball.

Which sport will Bell choose? Stay tuned.

Decisions 💭🙏🏾 #DualSportAthlete pic.twitter.com/3qGUH9uifI

— TUNK🖤 (@JimmyBellJr15) April 22, 2023