The Iowa Hawkeyes offered California wide receiver Maurice Bell on Monday
The Iowa Hawkeyes do not recruit in the state of California very often, so when they do you can bet there is usually some type of connection to the program. In the case of Class of 2017 wide receiver Maurice Bell from Murrieta Valley, it was his offensive coordinator, Pete Duffy, who is familiar with Iowa assistant coach Chris White as both are originally from Massachusetts and have known one another for years.
“With Chris White, there’s a long time relationship between him and myself,” said Duffy. “Having been doing this for twenty years, certainly those relationships are the first stepping stones for getting film watched in a timely fashion and all of that.”
“In this case, I’ve known him a long time and he knows lots of Division I recruits that have played for me, so I don’t want to speak for him, but I’m sure there’s some level of confidence when I send him a guy to look at.”
Before arriving at Murrieta Valley, Duffy had a very successful ten year run as head coach at Rancho Verde High School where he produced more than 30 Division I players including Ronald Powell, Tyron Smith, and Quincy Enunwa, among others. In fact, it was Chris White’s older brother, Brian, who was the lead recruiter for Powell, Rivals.com’s #1 recruit in 2010, and landed him when he was at Florida.
“As I’m sure you know, his brother, Brian, is at Boston College now,” Duffy said. “Brian was at Florida before and I had the No. 1 player in the country at the time, Ronald Powell, who ended up there. Then, a few years later, I had an Elite 11 quarterback, Sheriron Jones, who originally committed to him at Florida, but then went to Tennessee after the coaching change.”
Meanwhile, Chris White was at Syracuse and then the Minnesota Vikings during much of this time before arriving at Iowa in 2013. Once Duffy felt like he had a player on his offense at Murrieta Valley that might be a fit for the Hawkeyes, he was quick to give White a call.
“When I have a connection to a stellar program like Iowa, a top ten team under Coach Ferentz, where I just have the utmost respect for how they get it done there, I feel inclined to let them know when I have a guy I think could make an impact at that level,” said Duffy.
After Iowa received film and started learning more about Bell, who caught 51 passes for 956 yards and 16 touchdowns his junior year, the Hawkeyes decided to take the next step and offer a scholarship this week.
“He’s just really good, really smooth and fast, and the type of athlete that there’s certainly more of here west of the Mississippi,” Duffy said of Bell. “Aside from the other stuff, he’s a natural ball catcher and he’s deceivingly fast.”
“He runs all of the routes really well, he’s really coachable, and has an awesome work ethic,” he continued. “He’s a special kid.”
Iowa is the fourth school to offer Bell as the Hawkeyes join Boston College, Colorado, and UNLV on his list. Duffy sees that number quickly growing in the near future as more college coaches have the chance to evaluate his junior film.
“I expect by mid spring that everybody in the Pac-12 will offer maybe with the exception of USC or UCLA,” said Duffy.
As Bell begins the whole recruiting process, he is taking things slow and keeping an open mind about all of his options.
“I think early on he’s certainly open to everything,” Duffy said. “He knows that this is a tremendous honor.”
