MOBILE, Ala. — Ronnie Bell thought he was being pranked when he got his first recruiting call from Michigan football midway through his senior year of high school.
Bell already had signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Missouri State, and few football programs had even recruited him thinking he was a basketball-only guy. So when Bell answered former Michigan director of recruiting Matt Dudek's call that December, he immediately googled Dudek's name to find out if he was for real.
"I’m looking up Michigan staff and he is who he says he is, and then before I know it he’s like, 'Here, I have Coach,' and then I’m on the phone with Coach (Jim) Harbaugh just like that," Bell recalled Wednesday.