Ronnie Bell 'beyond excited' for Michigan season: 'I've been thinking about playing a game for a year now'

Michigan Wolverines football graduate wide receiver Ronnie Bell knows there are 22 days until the Wolverines kick off the season. He’s counting down the days, obviously. It was 342 days ago that Bell tore his ACL returning a punt in the Wolverines’ 2021 season-opener against Western Michigan.

Now that he’s back 100 percent — better than ever, in some areas — he just can’t wait to run onto the field, touch the banner and show out for the Maize and Blue.

“I feel blessed, man,” Bell said Friday. “I’m beyond excited about every single day. I feel really good. My body feels great, so I’m making plays, and it’s fun, man.

“Excited is an understatement, man. I was so ready to go since … I was saying something to Coach the other day, we were mentioning how the games are three weeks out, and I was like, ‘I’ve been thinking about playing a game for a year now.’ I’m beyond excited. I’m ready to go.”

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His rehab process was grueling, but he was determined to become a better Michigan player than he was before the injury. That remains to be seen, of course, but he has set personal records in multiple agility and speed tests this offseason, including the ‘L-cone.’

“I shocked myself, because I had a PR that I set a couple years ago that I couldn’t break,” Bell said of that drill. “I ended up breaking that, and I was super excited about that.

“Just rehabbing every day, you’re focusing on yourself for nine-straight months. I told myself whenever it all happened, if I didn’t come out on the other end stronger, I was doing something wrong. So that was the goal, for sure, and I’m glad that’s how it’s went.”

Bell led Michigan in receiving in both 2019 and 2020, and got off to a great start in the first half against the Broncos last season, catching a 76-yard touchdown on a slot-fade route and returning a punt 31 yards. It took him a couple days to get back into the swing of things, but now he’s back up to speed.

“The first couple days were like that. It was very rusty,” the Michigan wideout said. “Having people around you as you run a route — because I’ve been running routes for months, but I hadn’t been running routes with people around me.

“Kicking off the rust of being comfortable with people around you … I don’t know what day it was, but I finally jumped up and made a play on the ball, one of the early days in camp, and it was like, once that happened, it was the biggest weight lifted off my shoulders that I think I’ve ever had. Since then, I feel like I’ve been back and rolling.”

Famously, Bell stayed engaged and performed his leadership duties as a Michigan team captain from the sidelines last season. He was a player-coach, keeping the energy in the wide receiver room up, but he said it was difficult because he couldn’t show his teammates what to do, only tell them. Now, he can do both, and the 2021 campaign gave the rest of the returning wideouts an opportunity to burst onto the scene.

“My favorite thing about last year was watching the receivers grow every week,” Bell said of his Michigan position group. “The game right after was Washington, and I don’t think we threw the ball in the second half. And then the next week, and then by the time we got to Wisconsin, you see C.J. [senior Cornelius Johnson] play the way he did and [junior] Roman [Wilson] play the way he did.

“Watching the receiver room just evolve throughout, and everybody stepped up and made plays. That was my favorite part about last year. The offense, it was maybe like a speed bump, but it just got rolling and just started dominating.”

Michigan WR Ronnie Bell back at punt returner

While Bell hurt himself returning a punt last season, it was a non-contact injury and wasn’t because it was a special teams play. A “freak thing,” as the Michigan standout put it earlier this summer.

Bell is back at punt returner, attempting to win the job back.

“I’ve always been a punt returner, so I feel like I’m comfortable being a punt returner, I’m good with being a punt returner, so that’s something that I want to do,” Bell explained.

The decision was up to him, not a push from the coaches.

“I just kinda went back there,” Bell said with a smile, describing how he ended up taking practice reps at the position.