Kerwin Bell

Kerwin Douglas Bell (born June 15, 1965) is an American football coach and former player who has been the head coach of the Western Carolina Catamounts football team since 2021. He played professionally as a quarterback for 14 seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL), World League of American Football (WLAF), and the National Football League (NFL) from the late 1980s until 2002. He then went into coaching, first at the high school level before moving to the collegiate ranks in 2007.

Bell was born in the rural North Central Florida town of Live Oak and was a star high school football quarterback at Lafayette County High School. Though he led the Lafayette Hornets to their only state championship, he did not attract the attention of top college football programs while playing at the small high school. He enrolled at the University of Florida, made their Florida Gators team as a walk-on, and was redshirted during his freshman season of 1983.

Injuries to more experienced players just before the 1984 season pushed Bell into a starting role for the Gators' season opening game against the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes in what was one of the first prime time college football broadcasts on ESPN. He played well in his first collegiate appearance, throwing a go-ahead touchdown pass with under a minute remaining. Though Miami responded and scored the winning touchdown with seven seconds left, Bell's performance under difficult circumstances cemented his position as the team's starting quarterback. Even as head coach Charley Pell was fired mid-season due to NCAA rules violations, Bell and interim coach Galen Hall led the Gators to a conference-best 9–1–1 record, and he was named the Southeastern Conference (SEC) player of the year. Bell played at Florida for four seasons and was named to several more All-SEC and All-American lists before graduating in 1987.^[1]

Though he started dozens of games in the WLAF and the CFL, he never started an NFL contest and threw only five regular season passes in his NFL career. However, he completed all five of those passes for 75 yards and a touchdown, leaving him with the highest career passer rating in league history, albeit in a very small sample size.^[2]

After retiring as a player, Bell returned to Florida and became a high school football coach, leading Trinity High School in Ocala to their first state football championship in 2005. He became the head coach at NCAA Division 1 (FCS) Jacksonville University in 2007 and led the Dolphins to their first three conference championships during his nine seasons at the school. Bell moved to Valdosta State University in 2016, and in 2018, he led the Blazers to their first undefeated season and the NCAA D-II national championship on the strength of the highest scoring offense in college football.^[3][4] Bell accepted the position of offensive coordinator for the South Florida Bulls under head coach Charlie Strong in 2019 but was dismissed along with the entire staff when Strong was fired after the season.^[5]

Bell became the head football coach at Western Carolina in 2021. The Catamounts had not won more than three games for several seasons until Bell led them to their first winning record in six years in 2022.