Ridgeland’s Vonn Bell is a top prospect for the 2013 high school football recruiting class.A year ago at this time, Vonn Bell was just trying to fit in with his new Ridgeland High School football teammates. Now there are entire Internet message boards dedicated to him and where he might matriculate with his considerable talents.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior safety and receiver is ranked as high as the 19th best overall prospect in the country by 247Sports.com. He has more than 20 big-time scholarship offers — big as in Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Notre Dame and Ohio State.
His junior statistics were off-the-chart good: 180 total tackles, 119 solo tackles, five interceptions, three forced fumbles and three recoveries for touchdowns. He added 31 receptions for 487 yards and six touchdowns receiving and 280 yards and five scores rushing.
Those are video game stats, almost too-good-to-be true stats. Are half the tackles the kind you get for touching the pile of bodies already on the ground at the end of the play? Was the competition that bad?
So you find an online video that contains Bell’s junior highlights and you get it the way Lane Kiffin got it. The Southern California coach reportedly needed all of 30 seconds of the video before he OK’d an official offer to Bell. The video was so strong that even though Bell had yet to attend a single prospect camp, he was getting Southeastern Conference offers by the handful.