Vonn Bell soaking up knowledge with Saints
Vonn Bell looked like a finished product the first time he stepped on the field for Ridgeland High in the northwest corner of Georgia.

At least to the untrained eye. Bell, a junior transfer from the Chattanooga area, racked up somewhere between 10 and 15 tackles, picked off a pass, even scooped up a fumble and raced for a score that gave Ridgeland a chance in a 17-14 loss to Adairsville.

Bell seemed like the bright, breakout star on a disappointing night for the Panthers.

Imagine the young safety’s shock when found out a day or two later that he’d graded out at a 38 for the game.

“I’ve been coaching for 32 years, and he was one of the best athletes I’d ever seen, but he wasn’t a great football player when he walked on campus,” former Ridgeland coach Mark Mariakis said. “There were so many little things he was doing wrong.”

Bell sat down to watch the film in shock. The numbers didn’t seem to match.

Then the Ridgeland coaches showed Bell the mistakes he’d made: Bad angles, letting his eyes drift to the wrong part of the field, blown coverages that Bell had made look good by using his freakish physical gifts to recover. Bell, only a junior at the time, took the criticism in stride.

“I tell you that story,” Mariakis said, “because from that day on, he was a sponge.”

‘He soaked it all up’

‘You can’t coach those things’
Bell’s physical gifts were more than worthy of all the attention he earned in the recruiting process. Plenty of talented players find themselves stuck on the sideline in order to mature. The remarkable thing about Bell’s slow starts at Ridgeland and Ohio State is that he was capable of contributing through the growing pains.

“By the time his junior year ended, he was a coach on the field,” Mariakis said. “He was so hungry to learn.”

Bell opened his Ohio State career as a nickel covering in the slot, and although he had trouble with Sammy Watkins in Ohio State’s 40-35 loss to Clemson in the 2014 Orange Bowl, he also came away with seven tackles and the first interception of his career.

Under Ash’s tutelage, Bell became an All-American, the physical, energizing heart of a defense that dominated the NFL draft at the end of April.

“Pound-for-pound, the toughest player we had at Ohio State on the defense, and that includes Joey Bosa, Darron Lee, all those guys,” Ash said.

Rest: A 'sponge' you say? Rookie Vonn Bell soaking up knowledge quickly with Saints | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, Louisiana