Broncos' Mike Bell overcomes his anxiety to make run at top spot

Clay Latimer, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 2, 2006 at midnight

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ENGLEWOOD - It must have been a creepy feeling for Mike Bell to be in Tucson on the night of Nov. 12, 2002, knowing what was happening on the University of Arizona campus.

With mutiny on their minds, more than 40 of his teammates were meeting secretly with school president Peter Likins to complain about Wildcats football coach John Mackovic, whose distant, abrasive style had divided the team and town.

As midnight neared, there even was a rumor swirling through the desert the Wildcats might boycott their next game, the darkest turn yet in a tumultuous season.

"It was horrible," said Bell, a redshirt freshman at the time. "There was so much division on the team - backstabbing, fighting, arguing - things somebody right out of high school would never expect. I just wanted out of there."

Four years later, Bell has made his way to Colorado, where he is finding a new life atop the Broncos depth chart.

An undrafted rookie free agent running back, he came out of nowhere in training camp, climbing past Tatum Bell, Ron Dayne and Cedric Cobbs with a blend of power and quickness that quickly impressed coach Mike Shanahan, an expert at converting bargain-bin backs into instant stars.

In fact, Bell joins a long line of Broncos tailbacks with unlikely backgrounds and underappreciated skills - a list that includes Terrell Davis, Mike Anderson, Olandis Gary and Reuben Droughns.

But leaving Arizona has done little to settle Bell's nerves, which should spike before the Sept. 10 opener in St. Louis.

Even now, at the top of his game, the 23-year-old Phoenix native is as apprehensive as he is determined, an uneasy mix that could leave him nauseous before his NFL debut, whether he starts or not.

"In Pop Warner, in fourth grade, I started throwing up before games, and that went on through college," said Bell, who ran for 3,163 yards during his college career. "I was just so eager, I got so worked up that my nerves sometimes got the best of me. Sometimes I think I just need to relax."

That's a tough task for Bell, whose anxieties hardly end with football. Even as he plowed over burly high school linebackers, for example, he couldn't summon the nerve to drive a car.

"I had a real big-time fear of cars; I knew a lot of people dying in accidents," he said. "I was scared to learn how to drive. I didn't even like to ride in cars. I didn't really learn how to drive until my sophomore year in college."

Sound more like Woody Allen than Woody Hayes? That's fine with Bell, a driven achiever whose fear of failure could make him the Broncos' go-to back for years.

"He never thought anything was secure," said Dusty Sullivan, his track coach at Tolleson High School. "He would say, 'Oh, coach, I'm just not good enough. I'm not going to make it; I'm not fast enough.' No matter how well he does, he's always worried.

"Any time you step on a practice field and you're not sure if you're going to have a job tomorrow, you're going to work that much harder."

Parents kept Bell focused

Bell was a natural star in Pop Warner ball, scoring a championship-clinching touchdown that thrilled his father, Anthony, a former Fort Hays State player, and mother, Linda, a stickler for hard work and strict rules.

"My parents kept me disciplined and focused, helped me set standards for life," Bell said. "If I hadn't had their support and direction, I would have been all over the place in high school."

Bell was a third-string tailback as a sophomore at Tolleson High, which is situated in a small blue-collar town 12 miles west of Phoenix. Unable to beat the school's top sprinters in track, he turned to the hurdles, spending long hours mastering the event's technical details, a formula he later would duplicate as a zone runner with the Arizona football team and with the Broncos.

"He knew where his strengths were," Sullivan said. "He wanted to find where he could fit in.

"The hurdles aren't something you're just automatically good at. It takes a tremendous amount of extra time doing the drills and going over it again and again - in the intermediate hurdles, especially. It's a matter of counting steps, and there are very few high school hurdlers who ever get to that level. But he reached that level."

Two years later, Bell won a state title in the event.

But football was his passion. As a junior, he rushed for 2,038 yards and wowed college scouts with his size and quickness, a rare blend for a high school back.

"That's the freaky thing," said Reggie McGill, Bell's running backs coach in high school and a former running back at Arizona. "I've seen a lot of guys faster in high school but not as quick with his size. In his junior year, he started to get a lot better. But I think he's still learning."

Two 2,000-yard seasons

As a 6-foot-1, 205-pound high school senior, Bell ran for 2,484 yards and scored 35 touchdowns, becoming the second player in state history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in consecutive seasons. In two games against Scottsdale Chaparral - the two-time undefeated state champion - Bell rushed for 188 and 144 yards.

"There were only a couple times I've seen him comfortable with his ability - and that was when he was getting ready to play Chaparral," McGill said.

Especially hurtful to Bell were whispers he lacked the speed for Division I-A, a criticism that drove him in a summer acceleration camp.

"I don't like people telling me I can't do something," Bell said. "People have told me a lot of things - that I would never be any good in football, wouldn't get a college scholarship, wouldn't play at Arizona because I didn't go to a big-time high school. . . .

"Every time someone tells me something like that, it just challenges me. Even coming out of college, I was always hearing it from scouts - that I wasn't fast enough. I know I'm not the fastest guy. I know I'm no Tatum Bell or Cedric Cobbs. But I think people have always underestimated my speed. A lot of coaches I've had have stressed to me that my athletic ability isn't going to do it for me, that I need to be a football player and to understand how the game works."

The contrast between Bell's macho running style and his phobias amused teammates. When a dog approached him at a party, he jumped a fence to avoid the beast. He broke into a sprint after spotting a lizard in the desert.

"My biggest fear is spiders," he said. "I'm terrified of them."

Difficult decision

The recruiting game really threw Bell for a loop. Southern California, UCLA, Ohio State, Kansas State and plenty of other schools made runs at him, but after visiting Oregon, Oregon State, Colorado State, Arizona and Arizona State, Bell seemed to settle on the Sun Devils.

In fact, McGill removed a replica of Arizona's "A" athletics logo - given to him by Bell - from his office wall after Bell announced his decision. But Bell changed his mind again and only after his parents gave him an ultimatum did he choose Arizona - one day after announcing he was Arizona State-bound.

Mackovic, who had just replaced Dick Tomey, enjoyed a reputation as an offensive-minded coach with a talent for developing marquee backs, including Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams at Texas. He announced publicly Bell would play as a freshman, then redshirted him instead.

"That hurt," Bell said.

Four games into the 2002 season, however, Clarence Farmer, the Pacific-10's leading rusher in 2001, went down because of a season-ending left knee injury. Bell stepped in but struggled in his debut, and as injuries continued to deplete the offense, Arizona's running game crumbled.

But the Wildcats had far worse problems.

During a game against UCLA, Mackovic screamed "you're a disgrace to your family" to tight end Justin Levasseur, an outburst that galvanized Mackovic's critics.

The turmoil came to a head when nearly half the team marched into Likins' office in November. The rare player mutiny turned upperclassmen against underclassmen, most of whom were Mackovic's recruits.

Although a Tucson radio station reported he would resign, Mackovic saved his job by admitting he had made mistakes during a tearful news conference.

"Obviously, they were tumultuous times," said Jay Boulware, Arizona's running backs coach at the time and now a Utah assistant. "Mike was one of the good guys. He wasn't trying to stir things up. He was exactly the opposite: He did what he was asked to every single day, didn't say 'boo' one way or the other."

Bell's comeback

Bell rebounded in 2003, running for 920 yards, earning Pacific-10 second-team honors and demonstrating an intuitive feel for a zone offense.

"He did a nice job of becoming a technician," Boulware said. "He made dramatic improvements, and you have to be very coachable to do that."

In the Wildcats' only conference win, Bell rushed for 222 yards on 26 carries against Washington, including touchdown runs of 69, 67 and 37 yards. Leaving the locker room, he and some teammates returned to the field, even though all the lights and the scoreboard at Arizona Stadium had been turned off.

When a couple of fans jumped on his shoulders, Bell carried them around the field.

"This is probably the happiest I've been," he said then. "It was the biggest win of all time for me, even bigger than the Pop Warner championship game."

By then, Mackovic was long gone, having been fired midway through the season and replaced by defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz, who was named interim coach. Hankwitz then was replaced by Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops, Bell's third coach in three years.

Stoops made Bell the poster boy for the program, calling him a "special player" and ordering offensive coordinator Mike Canales to build an offense around Bell's skills.

Embracing his new role, Bell appeared on posters and billboards that summer, did a stream of interviews and drove to teammates' homes to wake them for early-morning workouts.

In the second game of the season, however, he fumbled on the first play from scrimmage, and a Utah defender ran the ball back inside the Wildcats 10. Bell managed 36 yards on six carries and lost his second fumble of the night at the Utah 8-yard line with Arizona trailing 23-6 late in the third quarter.

Because he also had fumbled in the opener, Stoops had him practice with a special football that featured a red cover designed to make it slippery and much harder to handle.

As a senior, Bell ran for 158 yards on 20 carries against Oregon, but his two fumbles cost the Wildcats a victory, solidifying his problematic image with NFL scouts.

"It just goes with his style," McGill said. "He needs a coach who really pounds away at the way he holds the ball. When he gets up in the hole, he moves so quickly and I think the ball just gets away from him - just like it used to do with Tiki Barber. But Tiki had a coach who stayed on him. Mike needs that."

Is Shanahan that man?

After watching Bell fumble in his pro debut against Detroit, the Broncos coach saw the anxious rookie rush for 74 yards on nine carries in the preseason finale against the Arizona Cardinals, a solid performance in any setting.

Bell has come full circle, too. Thursday he was cheered on by friends and fans at Cardinals Stadium, a few highway exits from Tolleson High, where he remains a local legend.

"In high school, it wasn't like people catered to me, but everything happened the way I wanted it to," Bell said. "It seemed perfect. We were winning games, I was running for 200 yards a game, I never had to go through anything tough. I was never really challenged.

"And then college. I was trying my hardest to transfer out of there. But I'm glad I stayed. It was good for me. It humbled me, taught me that life is going to throw you in different directions. It made me tough - mentally tough.

"I know I worry too much. It can be my worst enemy, but it also can be my best friend, because it got me to where I am today.

"I never want to be No. 2."

Instant stars

Mike Bell is trying to become the latest in a line of Broncos running backs who have burst onto the scene when their opportunity came.

• Terrell Davis, 1995 - He came into camp as a sixth-round draft pick, but with a boost from a spectacular play on special teams, coach Mike Shanahan promoted him to starting running back before the first game. Rushing yards: 1,117.

• Olandis Gary, 1999 - A fourth-round pick, he became the starter when Davis went down because of injury and carried the load for the running game. Rushing yards: 1,159.

• Mike Anderson, 2000 - A sixth-round selection, he moved into the No. 1 spot because of injuries and became a workhorse with 297 carries. Rushing yards: 1,487.

• Clinton Portis, 2002 - A fumble-prone fourth-teamer in the preseason, the second-round selection hit his stride during the regular season with his big-play ability. Rushing yards: 1,508.

• Reuben Droughns, 2004 - When everyone in front of him went down because of injury, the third-round pick came to the fore. Rushing yards: 1,240.

latimerc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2596

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