Before “The New Indiana” became an unofficial recruiting slogan for IU football, Jaylen Bell was simply talking with his parents.
The class of 2025 defensive back committed to Indiana in early June after taking an official visit, and one thing stuck out as the Bells debriefed from their time in Bloomington. IU’s staff had been in regular contact with the three-star recruit throughout the preceding months after they’d offered him a scholarship, recruiting him to be a part of head coach Curt Cignetti’s transformation of the program.
And that point was hammered home even further on the official visit.
“We were just talking, like, ‘It’s a whole different program.’ Especially when we got there in the beginning of the official visit, coach Cignetti was talking about how this is not the old Indiana, and everybody’s perspective of how Indiana used to be needs to change right now, because he’s changing it,” Bell said. “So when we got in that room that night, it’s like, ‘It’s a whole different Indiana.’ And we just came up with the idea of ‘New Indiana.'”
Bell, who stands 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds, posted about ‘The New Indiana’ on X, formerly known as Twitter. And people quickly took notice. Other recruits and commits started posting it. IU coaches and staffers followed suit. It created a slogan for the vision Cignetti and his staff have been implementing since he was hired in late November.
But the Loganville, Ga. native wasn’t always locked in on joining the Hoosiers. Bell originally committed to LSU in November 2022. He was excited to play for the Tigers, given the program’s strong reputation for developing defensive backs. But after the 2023 season, head coach Brian Kelly overhauled nearly his entire defensive staff. That’s when things changed for Bell — he heard from LSU less frequently and knew what he had to do.
“I was in great contact with the last staff, so when the defensive staff changed, the defensive back coach changed, the safeties coach changed, the contact just wasn’t right with my family,” Bell said. “We just thought it was best to back out and free up our options, because I was still a sophomore going in my junior year. So we didn’t want to go all that time just wasting our time with no contact. We thought that was best, to just free up the recruiting process.”
Bell grew up in Union, N.J. before moving to Georgia in 2020. He not only came from a football family — he grew up in a defensive back family. His father, Marion, played in the secondary in high school and college, and now is the head coach at Southwest Dekalb (Georgia) High after spending over 20 years coaching in New Jersey. Jaylen’s older brother, Tre’, played cornerback at Vanderbilt and UConn, and is now coaching at West Virginia.
That’s shaped Bell’s entire football career. Dinner table conversations weren’t just about football, but about defensive back specifically. He and his family always watched football — at any level — together as he grew up, and they’d typically watch the game from a DB lens. He was able to train with older, more advanced players his father had coached, like now-Buffalo Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas, as well as Tre’.
Bell’s football background is more entangled with his position than many others’ entering college are, and it’s been helpful for him.
“Most kids, they go into college or they go into high school as a receiver, a DB, linebacker, all these multiple positions. But I’ve been playing this one position all my life, so I know that position like the back of my hand,” Bell said. “So it’s very helpful, since that’s just been growing in my family and in my household my whole entire life.”
Bell originally chose LSU over other offers from Ole Miss, Florida State, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Colorado, Purdue, and Miami (Fla.), among others. He added two more offers in 2023, and in January 2024 — before he decommitted — Georgia State and IU extended offers. Bell picked up a few more offers after decommitting, with a Power Five offer from West Virginia.
But Bell’s path eventually pointed towards Bloomington. He’ll spend one more year sharpening his game in high school, with a skill set he feels is already well-rounded. He’ll bring that, his high existing defensive back IQ, and his competitiveness to the Hoosiers in 2025.
“They’re getting a dog, and someone that knows how to play football,” Bell said. “No matter their size, no matter who you put up against me, I will elevate to the competition and win.”
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