Walt Bell

Head coach, Massachusetts, 2019 to 2021

Now

Career arc

Stature score reached, by season of his head-coaching careerMassachusettsRegional Programthe building-block levelMassachusetts when he took over: 9.9 (Regional Program V), its final 2018 readingtook overMassachusetts, 2019: 1-11, Regional Program VMassachusetts, 2019: 1-11, Regional Program V20191-11Massachusetts, 2020: 0-4, Regional Program V20200-4Massachusetts, 2021: 1-8, Regional Program VIMassachusetts, 2021: 1-8, Regional Program VI20211-8-6.4best: 2019○ the program when he took over · Dashed segments are program changes — spacing is not proportional to calendar time

Coordinator years

Offensive coordinator across 5 programs, 6 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.

100th — best in the country90th — elite — top 10%75th — top quarter50th — national median25th — bottom quarter0 — worst in the countryHis unit’s national rank, by season’14’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26Arkansas State · OCMaryland · OCMassachusetts · head coachIndianaIndianaWestern Michigan · OC→ Became head coachMassachusetts, 2019← Returned to coordinatingIndiana, 2022Arkansas State ranked 39th percentile the year before he arrived○ what he walked intoArkansas State 2014: 55th percentile nationallyArkansas State 2015: 68th percentile nationallyMaryland ranked 18th percentile the year before he arrivedMaryland 2016: 35th percentile nationallyMaryland 2017: 13th percentile nationallyFlorida State ranked 64th percentile the year before he arrivedFlorida State 2018: 21st percentile nationallyIndiana ranked 3rd percentile the year before he arrivedIndiana 2022: 11th percentile nationallyIndiana ranked 11th percentile the year before he arrivedIndiana 2023: 39th percentile nationallyWestern Michigan ranked 25th percentile the year before he arrivedWestern Michigan 2024: 62nd percentile nationallyWestern Michigan 2025: 42nd percentile nationallyWestern Michigan 2026: 49th percentile nationallyMassachusetts 2019: 2nd percentileMassachusetts 2020: 1st percentile (Angelo Mirando ran the unit)Massachusetts 2021: 13th percentile68th, career bestArkansas State, 20151st percentile

How to read this. Coordinator seasons come from our coordinator career records; head-coaching-era seasons are the same unit's FBS-relative percentile for those years, regardless of who coached it, read directly from the staff assignments record. A role change (a “hinge”) is a fact, never a performance verdict — only the season-by-season data itself is colored by outcome.

Report card

Bottom-quarter on both sides of the ball — 17th percentile offense, 0th percentile defense.

Massachusetts, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.

Offense

D
of which —17th
efficiency — 17th percentile success rate, 2019–21
D16th
Standard-downs success
D22nd
Passing-downs success
D24th
Trench push (line yards)
F11th
Red-zone scoring rate
F13th
Power-success (short yardage)
D25th
Ball security (giveaways per game)

Defense

F
of which —0th
0th percentile SP+ defense, 2019–21
C44th
Front-7 havoc
C-30th
Secondary havoc
C+46th
Stuff rate (run defense)
C-31st
Takeaways per game

Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.