Iowa State cornerback Tre Bell in spring practice. Photo courtesy Iowa State Athletics Communications.
AMES — Tre Bell remembers the precise moment his hoops dreams died.
It came in the spring of 2022 and Bell — a 6-3 defensive back and aspiring basketball player at Lindenwood at the time — searched his soul to form a fitting eulogy.
“I was in my dorm room at Lindenwood and we were, I want to say, two or three days done with the season,” said Bell, who leveled up to join Iowa State’s football program as a transfer cornerback last winter. “My first semester there. I redshirted, so I didn’t play but just going through the practices and stuff, I was just thinking, ‘Wow, football’s actually a lot more fun than I thought it was.’”
So Bell broke up with his first sports-based love, which had seemingly spurned him after a lifelong relationship — and now he’s poised to make strong contributions in the Cyclones’ secondary.
“He has all the tools and the skillset to develop,” said ISU cornerbacks coach Hank Poteat, who won a Super Bowl ring with the New England Patriots in 2005 during an almost decade-long NFL career. “He’s very smart, so he picks (things) up pretty fast. You could see, from practice one to practice three, he’s grown over those three practices — just getting me in front of him to detail some of the things we’re asking him to do. You can see him picking it up and getting better every day.”
Poteat likened Bell’s work ethic to former Cyclone Darien Porter, who fully found a home at cornerback in his final college season while continuing to shine on special teams. Porter — a former track star at Bettendorf who stands 6-3 — wowed scouts at the NFL Combine by running a 4.3-second 40-yard dash and acing all the physical and mental tests he underwent in Indianapolis.
But Poteat just nodded his head slightly as Porter accrued his gaudy numbers.
“They had people (who were) projecting a 4.4 or maybe a 4.39 and I just laughed at it,” Poteat said. “I had to comment one time to somebody and I said, ‘You have no idea. DP’s gonna run way faster than that.’”
So for Poteat to compare anyone to Porter — especially in terms of his work habits and football IQ, that’s sky-high praise, but speaks to Bell’s barely-tapped potential. He doesn’t necessarily possess Porter’s elite athleticism, but he’s still fast, tough and rangy; a ball hawk in every sense of the term.
“He looks good,” said ISU junior cornerback Jontez Williams, who snared four interceptions while breaking up five passes last season. “We’ve just got to keep working on the little things, the techniques that he may not have had at the other school. He’s just working on different things that coach (Poteat) is teaching us.”
The Cyclones tied for 22nd nationally last season with 15 interceptions, and Williams and Porter combined to collect seven of them. Bell boasts one career interception, but possesses the ball skills that could help him become a fixture at corner along with promising younger players such as David Coffey, who redshirted last season.
“I feel like I haven’t reached my fullest potential yet,” Bell said. “I know I have so much to learn and so much (room) to grow. And being at this level, I’m gonna learn and grow a lot. I’ve already done a lot of growing since I’ve been here. I’m just excited to see where it takes me.”
So Bell’s not feeling pressure. He’s simply primed to produce results. He’s firmly focused on a relatively new dream: Blossoming into a standout cornerback, while fully knowing he’s got a long way to go to get there.
“I’ve watched Darien Porter a lot,” Bell said. “He’s been up here because he’s getting ready to go to the draft and go to the NFL, so having conversations with him, definitely gonna be utilizing that a lot to see how he was successful. Because, really, it was one season he really popped off, and he’s where I want to be in the next one to two years. So just learning from him, learning from film, learning all the things that he learned along the way.”
