Terps OC Walt Bell: 'It takes a village to play the way that we play'

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- When analyzing Walt Bell’s up-tempo offense, many may think it’s the number of plays that make the scheme successful. But if you ask the Terps offensive coordinator himself, it’s the quality of the plays he runs, not the quantity, that leads to a prolific system.

TERPS INSIDER message board | SHOP NOW: DEALS on TERPS apparel | LIKE us on FACEBOOK

“That used to be a big deal--you’d have people bragging about how many plays they ran--you know, ‘We ran 110, and we ran 95, and we ran 80,’ at the end of the day, it’s about winning the game,” Bell told TSR. “Our first year at Arkansas State, we were sixth in the country in snaps per game and broke every record in the history of the conference, but we were 7-6 and nobody cared. And then last year, we were 33rd in the country in snaps per game, still broke every record in the history of the conference, but at the end of the day, we were 8-0 in our conference and won our conference championship, and that’s all anybody cares about.”

More from TSR: CLASS IMPACT: MINOR TO MARYLAND | WATCH: OC WALT BELL BREAKS DOWN TERPS OFFENSE

Rather than harp on the amount of snaps his players get off in a game, Bell is much more focused on the productivity of each play and has a few other stats that he uses to establish goals for his offense.

“Much bigger predictors of how you’re going to win are yards per play and points per play,” said Bell, whose offense last year at Arkansas State ranked 56th in the FBS with 5.5 yards per play and 20th with .486 points per play. “How explosive are you being? That has more to do with winning and losing. If we go out there and snap it 40 times and 15 of those are explosive, six of which score and we get 35 points, everybody will be happy.”

While Bell isn’t reaching for a certain number of snaps, the nature of his offense usually results in an above-average number of plays being ran throughout a game.

More plays should mean more production across the board for Maryland’s offensive players. Bell believes most of the Terps’ skill players will have a chance to contribute in 2016 because of the need for fresh bodies on the field at all times to run his fast-paced scheme.

“With the pace that we play, it’s going to take three running backs and eight wideouts to play every game that we play, regardless of who we’re playing, how we’re playing,” Bell said. “We’re going to play the game the right way, we’re going to respect the game, we’re going to do everything with an incredibly high level of effort.

“And for those kids to play that hard all of the time, it takes a bunch of guys. It takes a village to play the way that we play. And because of that, the ball gets spread around a lot. Typically at the end of the year we’ll have six to eight guys with 20 catches, three or four guys with 40 or 50 and two or three with 60 or 70. So the ball gets spread around.”

It appears that there will be plenty of passes to go around at Maryland this season, however, Bell’s offense has also been known to establish a strong running game.

Arkansas State ranked 15th in the country with 231.3 rushing yards per game last season under Bell’s tutelage, and that same commitment to the run has been brought to College Park as a way to keep Maryland’s offense balanced and the Terps defense rested.

“We understand that as many snaps as we play are as many snaps as our kids on defense are going to have to play,” Bell said. “So there’s a healthy balance there and I think that’s why we’re so committed to the run game. Even though we’re snapping at a pretty fair clip, we’re still pretty heavy running the football.”