Jeff Brohm new he had landed four-star wide receiver David Bell way before one of the top athletes out of the state of Indiana made is announcement at the All-America Bowl in January. Bell put his signature on his National Letter of Intent before the game kicked off.

But Bell wanted to make the announcement in front of a national audience during the All-America  Bowl, much like Rondale Moore did the previous year. When he made his decision public, the talk about Purdue having one of the top receiving duos in the B1G for 2019 quickly grew.

Since Brohm wanted to respect Bell’s decision to make the announcement, the head coach didn’t talk about the wide receiver until National Signing Day. That’s when he told Gold and Black Illustrated’s Tom Dienhart just how excited he was.

“We jumped through the roof,” Brohm told GBI. “It was huge. He was someone we were on for a long time. In our opinion, he is a special, special player. Being in-state, he’s even more valuable. (He) wanted to keep it silent, of course we were gonna obey his wishes. We had to keep it in. But we were extremely happy about it and it gave us a good feeling to know he was on board.”

Bell is ranked as the second-best prospect out of Indiana, behind now-teammate George Karlaftis — a defensive end who signed with the Boilermakers in December. Bell is ranked as a top 20 wide receiver and is one of the top 125 players in the 2019 class, according to 247Sports.

There’s an expectation that he’ll be just as explosive and dynamic as Moore was in his sensational freshman campaign that earned him consensus All-American honors.

It’s easy to see why Brohm and his staff were so excited to add Bell to the roster and potentially have him step in and make an immediate contribution.