Walt Bell on Maryland’s QB injury woes: ‘football is the greatest teacher of life’

Maryland football has played five quarterbacks in 2017. Three have started games, and that number may or may not reach four in a couple days. It’s been weird.

Walt Bell, the Terps’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, is every bit as frustrated and confused as all Maryland fans. During his weekly press conference Wednesday, he pondered aloud if the Terps were in “The Upside Down.”

When asked if facing these injuries and constantly adapting his plans made him a better coach, Bell delivered this introspective gem.

“I don't know if it's helped me as a coach. It's definitely helped me as a person. It's a great teacher. That's what makes football so great. Football is the greatest teacher of life that there is because you have to deal with other people, you have to learn how to deal with other people who have different personalities and wants than you do, you have to make it all work, you have to sweat and hurt together—football is a great teacher of life. It's the same for coaches.

“Obviously, you have to go out there and, ‘Oh you'll score 13 on Texas.' We scored 50. There's good things there. We feel like we have a great thing going forward, but sometimes bad things happen. Why do they happen? That's kind of the ‘it’ of life. Why do bad things happen to—perceived, hopefully I'm a good human being. It is what it is and there's nothing you can do about it.

“All you can do is, the sun is going to come up and you can put two feet on the floor and go try to make it work. That's what you do. When you've got those big hopes and dreams of what's to come and things don't go your way, not only is it very humbling but its also just a great teacher. Hopefully there will be sometime down the road in my personal life or in my football life where there will be issues just like this and I'll be better because of it, I'll be better prepared because of it, and I'll be able to help the others that are also going through that be better as well. It's life. Hopefully, it makes me better in the long run and hopefully it makes our team better in the long run."

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to put my two feet on the floor and loosen up my arm in case the staff needs me to dress this weekend.

In other news

Terrapin athletics posted an 84 percent Graduation Success Rate, according to figures released by the NCAA Wednesday. The numbers refer to players who entered the school between 2007 and 2011.

Maryland volleyball’s toughest stretch of the season continued with a straight-set loss to Nebraska.

Wednesday marked the first day of the early basketball signing period. Maryland had a banner day, securing all three commits in its 2018 class. Five-star power forward Jalen Smith, four-star small forward Aaron Wiggins and four-star combo guard Eric Ayala are on board.

Will Keldon Johnson join them? We’ll know Saturday.

The women’s basketball class is official, as well. It’s the No. 4 class in the country.

They’ve got plenty of company. Every college sport except football, soccer and men’s water polo (talk about splashing into the party) started its early signing period Wednesday. So that means dozens and dozens of new Maryland Terrapins. Only the softball team has announced its 2018 class already, but there will be plenty more to come.