An Interview With Tre Bell

Jersey City (NJ) St. Peter's Prep CB Tre Bell has seen his recruitment take off recently, seeing his offer list hit double digits after Michigan, Florida, Nebraska, and West Virginia all offered in a 24-hour span. The 5'11", 170-pound junior also holds offers from UConn, Rutgers, South Carolina, South Florida, UCF, Vanderbilt, and Wisconsin, and he's also hearing from schools like LSU, Maryland, and Notre Dame. I caught up with Tre shortly after he received his Wolverine offer to talk about his recruitment and his thoughts on Michigan:

ACE: How's everything going with your recruitment and what schools have been in contact with you the most right now?

TRE: Recruiting is going well. I've picked up a lot in the past few weeks, I've picked up ten offers. I've been talking to Florida a lot— they offered me—Michigan, Nebraska, West Virginia—I just went down there as well. Pretty much all the schools that offered me, they've been showing me a lot of interest.

ACE: Getting ten offers in two weeks, have you been able to sort through which schools are standing out to you as favorites right now or are you still waiting to see what comes in?

TRE: I'm waiting to see what comes in, just talking every night with my family.

ACE: You mentioned Michigan offered recently. How'd you hear about the offer and what coach has been your recruiting contact there?

TRE: Me and Coach Mallory have been talking a lot. He told me to call him last night, so I gave him a call and he let me know that they wanted to offer.

ACE: What are your thoughts on Michigan as a school and a program, what do you know about them?

TRE: Oh, man, Michigan speaks for itself. Just the history alone is just great. That's really what brings a lot of the recruits in, so I can't wait to get down there and check it out.

ACE: Going back to your junior year, how did you play and what kind of numbers did you put up?

TRE: I had 36 tackles, three interceptions, two forced fumbles, and ten pass breakups.

ACE: If you had to scout yourself, what would you say are your biggest strengths on the field and what are you trying to work on to improve for the next level?

TRE: I definitely want to improve on my speed and my strength for the next level and just bring my game higher. Right now I think what I'm best at is my ability to make a play on the ball, my athleticism, I'll come up and hit you, I think my tackling is pretty good, but all that stuff has to increase up ten notches going into college.

ACE: Looking ahead to this offseason and the summer, do you have any visits planned or do you have any schools specifically that you'd like to go see?

TRE: Certainly I would like to go see Florida and Michigan. That's just about it right now.

ACE: Do you have a timeline in mind for when you'd like to get your recruitment wrapped up?

TRE: Maybe before my senior season.

ACE: When it comes down to whenever you decide to make your decision, what are you looking for in a school?

TRE: First is academics. Academics is always first. I want to stay all four years and get my degree. After that would be the coaches and my bond with them, campus lifestyle, and after that early playing time.

ACE: What's something that you enjoy doing away from sports or something that you'd like people to know about you that doesn't have anything to do with the football field?

TRE: I was a basketball player all my life, but I had to stop playing for football, to concentrate on that. It's going pretty good so far, but I'm really into basketball. I like just hanging out with my friends and chilling with my family.