AMHERST — Gamesmanship is not a large part of Walt Bell’s coaching strategy.
On the same day Rutgers coach Chris Ash told reporters he knows who will start Friday for the Scarlet Knights against UMass but won’t announce it before the 7:15 p.m. kickoff, Bell went almost the complete opposite route. He said he knows who will start Friday and the quarterbacks know, he’s just waiting to tell the entire team before publicly announcing it after practice Tuesday.
“The quarterback’s already known,” Bell said while adding his own dramatic music to the announcement. “The team is more important than myself. The team will know and then you’ll know something (Tuesday).”
The competition began this summer with three quarterbacks — Andrew Brito, Michael Curtis and Randall West — and it seemed like an even battle for the first three weeks of practice. However, by Monday it looked like Curtis might have slipped to the No. 3 spot as Brito and West took most of the reps during the team drills.
Brito and West have pretty different skill sets. Brito has the strong arm and is able to fire passes into tight windows when he has time to put some power into his throws. West has showcased better touch, and has been tossing passes into receivers’ hands on deeper routes and behind defenders.
Bell said the team has probably known who was going to start for the last week or so, but he hasn’t made the announcement official. He said it’s a good thing that the team already picked its leader on offense and has put their faith behind the starter to be able to execute on Friday.
“Offensively, especially, you kind of feel confidence in a guy,” Bell said. “It’s more about those 10 guys that are in the huddle with him as they go to take the field that kind of make that choice. We’re there, but it’s important that they know as a team first.”
STAYING CALM — Any sense that Bell might be nervous for his coaching debut went out the window Monday as the 35-year-old laughed off any questions about uneasiness ahead of the opener.
“I’m ready to go,” Bell said. “I’m past the point of being nervous.”
His sleep schedule has been unaffected by his looming debut. He still wakes up around 4:15 each morning, gets into his office around 4:45 and then gets a workout in before beginning his day. He said by the time he gets home after practice he spends time with his wife, Maria, and relaxes before falling asleep and starting the process anew.
Running backs coach Fredi Knighten, who played under Bell at Arkansas State and coached with him the last three years, said Bell is so prepared for Friday that the anxiety is more about letting the world see what the coaches have known for awhile. He said he’s ready for the fans to see Bell be able to put everything together as a football coach and show off his skills as a big-picture strategist.
“I’m excited to see him going from the OC to the head coach and being able to put into those situations where you have to know about the game management — clock, timeouts, personnel,” Knighten said. “Now you’ll get to see all the football brain that he has flourish and it’ll be a real special thing.”
CHESS MATCH — Most first-year coaches have the benefit of the unknown heading into their first games. That is not the case for Bell against Rutgers.
During each of his two seasons at Maryland (2016-17), Bell had to face an Ash-coached Rutgers team. The Scarlet Knights have also hired Andy Buh as their defensive coordinator, who spent his past three seasons as the defensive coordinator at Maryland and worked with both Bell and UMass defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim.
“I don’t think they’re going to change any defensively,” Bell said. “Coach Ash being a defensive coach, they haven’t changed in (2016), ’17, ’18, you watch last year’s film, the didn’t change very much. They’re going to do what they do.”
Ultimately, Bell said the game isn’t any different than any other football game. It’s about the team that runs their own scheme the best and limits the big mistakes on the field.
“The thing about first games is it’s about who can make the least amount of mistakes,” Bell said. “Especially knowing that there’s going to be a big adrenaline dump, a lot of unneeded nervous energy and there’s going to be a lot of first time young people out there playing their first significant reps on either side of the ball on either team. It’s going to come down to execution skill. Can we run inside zone better than they run odd front? Whoever does their job better is going to win the football game.”
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.