FIU Football: Veteran Assistant Corey Bell Will Join Florida Atlantic

As first reported by Pete Thamel of ESPN, FIU cornerbacks coach Corey Bell will join rival Florida Atlantic.

Bell is known as one of the strongest recruiters in South Florida, having spent 19 seasons as a high school coach in Dade County and was once the youngest high school coach in the state of Florida, earning his first head coaching job at 25 in 1997.

He joined FIU last season, being a major piece of Mike MacIntyre’s coaching staff and efforts to recruit the South Florida area. The move is somewhat of a surprise, as Bell was at FIU’s off-campus spring practice at Luther Campbell Field in Liberty City yesterday, an event that was largely put together because of Bell’s friendship with Campbell, a longtime Miami prep coach.

“Being from that area and being good friends with Luke (Campbell), we were to come together and put that on the calendar,” said Bell to UDD about the event. “It allows people around the city to come watch us and it’s a big part of what we want to do as far as putting our brand out there.”

For Florida Atlantic, the hire gives first-year Owls’ head coach Tom Herman a major bargaining chip in recruiting Miami and bolsters a staff that features several assistants with ties to the tri-county area.

Bell replaces former Texas State head coach Everett Withers, who left Boca Raton earlier in the offseason to return to Temple as Defensive Coordinator after being on staff in Philadelphia in a support role last season. Ironically, Withers’ was FIU DC in 2021 — and Bell is one of several FIU-Florida Atlantic connections on staff. Miami native Brandon Harris was on FIU’s staff in 2019 & 2021.