Avoiding injuries will be Bell’s biggest challenge in 2026

Of all the high school football head coaches in the area, Bell’s Joey Whittington has been at the helm the longest consecutively.

“Bell’s a great community, small, tight-knit community,” said Whittington, who enters his 14^th season with the Bulldogs. “I was there for a couple of years, and my own personal kids came over when they were in fourth and second grade, and now my daughter’s fixing to be a senior and my son’s a sophomore on the team…it’s a good place for to raise a family and have a good experience with their education, and just being able to influence some of these young men has been good for the last 14 years.”

The Bulldogs, who compete in the Sunshine State Athletic Association (SSAA), advanced to the 11-man Atlantic championship game two years ago. However, injuries resulted in a 0-4 start last year.

The Bulldogs (5-5) were able to right the ship before losing in the first round of the SSAA playoffs in 2025.

“We got some injured guys back and some injuries we didn’t get back, but the players that had to kind of step up finally figured it out,” Whittington said. “We got to go on a little 5-0 run, but we ran into a good Fernandina Beach school in the playoffs, and that ended our season. But it was kind of like a roller coaster season last year.”

With a large senior class and returning a lot of production on offense, Bell is poised to make another run.

Running back Landin Williams, a preseason Super 11 last year, is back for his senior season.

Two years ago, Williams (5’9, 165) rushed for 1,981 yards, an average of 7.1 yards per carry (YPC), with 20 touchdowns. Despite dealing with some nagging injuries last season, he finished with 1,230 yards (6.4 YPC) and 16 touchdowns.

Williams said he has improved since his junior year heading into his final season of high school ball.

“I feel like my vision’s definitely gotten better, and my speed too, and most definitely my patience because I had to focus more on my blocking whenever I got injured because I couldn’t run as fast,” he said. “I think all that added together for this year, I think I’m gonna be pretty good.”

His brother, senior Kaleb Williams, broke his back and missed most of last year too.

“He was a starter at outside linebacker and our backup running back, but he’s back and pretty healthy this year,” Whittington said. “It’s good to have those two guys back in the backfield, and I think Landin benefits from that. He’ll get a spell from his brother. Our quarterback R.J. (Leffler) does a great job back in the backfield running the ball, and I think Landin’s ready to have a really solid senior year for us.”

Leffler (5’5, 155) only threw 53 passes but completed 34 of them for 341 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions. However, he rushed for 666 yards (6.7 YPC) and six touchdowns.

“He’s just that tough-nosed type kid that you love to have in your program,” Whittington said of his senior QB. “He does whatever is asked of him. He runs the ball more than he throws it for us with what we do, but he can throw when he needs to. He had a good 7-on-7 this summer, and the benefit with those guys back there is having a pretty experienced offensive line in front of them, and so we’re looking forward to seeing how we can go with our run game this year.”

Six starters return on the offensive side, including four offensive linemen.

Senior Clayton Hancock (6’, 240), who will help anchor the line from the center position, said he’s physically ready to play.

“Getting in that weight room, I can bench a lot more,” he said. “I’m starting to push a little bit more weight. I’m feeling a lot better, a little bit more athletic, I feel like. I’m feeling good. I’m feeling a lot better than I did last year, so I think it will be a good year.”

Defensively, inside linebacker will be the biggest question mark as one player graduated and Fran Kealey, an All Area selection who had 100 tackles last year as a junior, transferred to Buchholz.

However, the entire secondary of seniors Dean Glass, Noah Bagby, and Lane Sheffield return, and the defensive line should be solid with Hancock and senior Corbin Abarca (6’5, 300), who will also play left tackle.

“The team’s looking good,” Abarca said. “We’ve been in the weight room all summer. After the weight room, we go outside and do field work every day, and I think if we work together as a team, we’ll be able to make a good season out of it.”

Bell will open up the regular season at 7:30 p.m. this Friday night at home against SSAA opponent Dixie County (Cross City), which will be the debut for new Bears’ coach Andrew Thomas.

Friday’s game is the Tri-County Game of the Week. Bell defeated Dixie County, 42-12, last September.

“Last year against Dixie, they were all focusing on Landin, and that’s what most teams do is focus on Landin, but against Dixie, we were able to keep the ball with me and go the opposite way and open the field up more,” said Leffler, who ran for 175 yards on 14 carries against the Bears. “It threw them off, so I feel like we can do that more this year.”

This could be a special season for the ‘Dogs, but it all comes down to staying healthy.

“I think what we’ve seen, especially the last three years at Bell, is that this senior class, it’s kind of their time in school,” Whittington said. “When we were injury-prone their freshman year and their junior year, we saw that be a 2-8 record their freshman year, 5-5 record last year. When we stay healthy, we have the potential to be pretty good. We went 9-4 their sophomore year. A lot of these guys were starters as sophomores on that team.”