Louisville WR Chris Bell Overcoming Injury to Stand Out Early in Fall Camp

Heading into the upcoming 2023 season, a few names come to mind first when mentioning the wide receiver room for the Louisville football program. Jamari Thrash is coming off of a 1,000-yard season at Georgia State, Ahmari Huggins-Bruce has the chance to thrive in Brohm's pass-heavy offense, and Jackson State transfer Kevin Coleman Jr. had a standout spring.

That being said, a name to potentially monitor for year one under new head coach Jeff Brohm is Chris Bell. One of just two scholarship returners at wide receiver along with Huggins-Bruce, he showed flashes of potential as a true freshman last season with seven receptions for 105 yards on 12 targets.

Ever since the coaching staff arrived on campus this past December, Bell has been impressing them with his work ethic.

"He's a wonderful kid," wide receivers coach Garrick McGee said following Friday's fall camp practice. "Very hard worker. He cares a lot about what's going on around here, around his teammates and how he shows up every day and performs. Very good athlete, he's a big and strong kid.

"We just got to keep in mind, he's still a freshmen, so he's still learning the ins and outs, the details and all of that. But that's what we're in training camp for, we've only practiced three times. But I think the sky's the limit."

Unfortunately, Bell is only just now getting the chance to show the coaches what he can do on the gridiron. After the conclusion of the 2022 season, he had surgery to repair a torn labrum, and was forced to miss the entirety of spring practice. In fact, he wasn't medically cleared to return to football activities until just a few days before the start of fall camp, which kicked off this past Tuesday.

"It was hard for me not being on the field," Bell said. "It was a tough time, but I had coaches around talking to me, telling me it's going be alright and I'm gonna be okay, saying I was ready to come back. But it was a tough time."

To make up for not being able to participate in spring ball, Bell spent as much time as he possibly could both in the training room working on his rehab, and studying the playbook so that he could hit the ground running once he was cleared. He even believes that his chemistry with the quarterbacks is in a good spot because of how much he studied the playbook with them over the offseason.

"I was in the training room 24/7, I was in the playbook 24/7," he said. "Learning the offense, learning, the basic plays, the concepts and all that."

Not only is Bell nearly 100 percent healthy following his injury, if you didn't know any better after watching the first few practices of fall camp, you wouldn't have believed he was injured at all during the spring. While it's just three practices into camp, he has made a handful of impressive plays, and has been one of the better receivers during the preseason.

On Friday's practice, he made arguably the best play of fall camp up to that point. On a deep pass from starting quarterback Jack Plummer, Bell unleashed his inner Randy Moss, high-pointing the football over standout corner Quincy Riley for a long touchdown.

"Chris Bell, he grew a lot," Huggins-Bruce said. "It's only his third day of practice since he's been out all spring, but he's been making plays. He's a big physical guy, and he's a guy we need and we're counting on this year."

On top of that, because of his stature, the 6-foot-2 and 225-pound wide receiver has actually been approached by the staff about playing some at tight end. Now, a lot of that has to do with the fact that tight end for Louisville is the perceived weak spot on the offense right now, but as a bigger and more physical pass catcher, Bell has the skill set to potentially make it work as a WR/TE hybrid.

"The coaches were telling me that the more I learn, the more I end up on the field playing the "X", they're gonna ease me into the "Y" position," he said. "Coming, not like hand in the dirt, but like in a slot, standing up receiver type, because they feel I can do some in the slot too. I'm very excited for that."

No matter where he lines up on the field, Bell is just happy to be back out on the practice field giving it his all for the Cardinals.

"It's been fun," he said. "I'm very glad to be able to come back from the injury. Since I didn't play in the spring, it's been a minute since I had on the pads. But I was excited to come back and in the pads and get back to it."