Florida Gators Retain Corey Bell in Quality Control

Photo: Corey Bell; Credit: Zach Goodall

The Florida Gators are retaining director of player personnel Corey Bell as a part of new head coach Billy Napier's support staff, the school announced on Friday. However, Bell will take on a new role, now serving as a quality control — running backs assistant.

As he did in the player personnel role, Bell is expected to continue his efforts as a recruiter for the Gators, especially given his ties throughout the state of Florida at the high school level.

Bell returned to Florida before the 2021 season in a player personnel capacity under former head coach Dan Mullen after three seasons (2018-20) as UCF's cornerbacks coach. Before his tenure with the Knights, Bell spent the 2017 season as Florida’s secondary coach under previous head coach Jim McElwain,

Bell has also spent time at Florida Atlantic as secondary coach and director of player personnel (2014-16) and Miami as the director of football operations (2007-10).

247Sports reported on Thursday that Bell was “very interested” in returning to Miami in a coaching capacity, however, Florida would announce his retention on the support staff less than 24 hours after the report surfaced.

Before climbing to the college ranks, Bell coached at the high school level in the state of Flordia at American Senior (2011-13) and Miami Edison (1997-07). Bell began his time as Miami Edison's head coach at the age of 25 and went on to produce 84 division I signees, six All-Americans, and five-consecutive playoff appearances with three-straight district titles.

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