UMass head coach Walt Bell is taking canceled 2020 season way too hard

Walt Bell is taking the loss of football in 2020 way too hard.

Following the lead of Power 5 conferences like the Big Ten and Pac-12, independent FBS cellar-dweller UMass decided to cancel their 2020 fall football season. The decision to skip out on football has cut head coach Walt Bell deep, as referenced by this bizarre quote.

Bell claimed that he was more emotionally hurt by the canceled season in 2020 than he was by the death of both his father and mother. It’s one thing to be passionate about football when you’re a head coach, but this seems absurd.

Walt Bell would’ve been in for a long season in Amherst

Bell, who was hired as UMass head coach after stints as offensive coordinator with Maryland and Florida State, was in charge of a putrid Minutemen team in 2019.  In a season that saw FCS school Southern Illinois put up 45 points in a dominant win, Bell’s squad won just one game, an eight-point victory over an Akron team that didn’t win a game all season. they scored just 19.8 points per game and set a record by allowing an absurd 52.7 points per game. Bell will have to wait until 2021 to turn this ship around.

UMass knew they were going to need to hire a patient, exciting young coach who will help take this team out of the doldrums. While Bell certainly checks both of those boxes, there’s a fine line between passion and getting a bit too obsessed with your job, and Bell’s comments prove he might need to reassess his priorities a little bit.

It’s one thing to show off a fanatical, borderline obsessive devotion to football when you’re a college football head coach, but valuing a season more than your parents is equal parts bizarre. Hopefully, Bell sees things from a new perspective during UMass’ hiatus.