Sep. 30—Aaron Best learned years ago that one brother is not necessarily like the next, and that maybe the next doesn't want to be defined or known solely by kinship.
He learned that lesson from Ketner Kupp.
"I'll never forget this," Best, the Eastern Washington head football coach, said on Tuesday. "Ketner said, 'I've always been introduced as Ketner, Cooper's brother.' "
Best vowed to never do the same.
Ketner Kupp became a team captain for the Eagles in 2018, two years after Cooper Kupp graduated and went on to star in the NFL. They played together in 2015 and 2016. Since then, Best has coached sons of his former teammates, and he has coached step-brothers like current EWU football players Jaylon Jenkins and JoJo Maxey-Johnson, who are in their own right making names for themselves this season.
But this year, Best is putting into practice the lesson Ketner Kupp taught him a decade ago, thanks to the emergence of Jaxon Bell, the shifty, 5-foot-9, 173-pound true freshman running back and returner who has given a stop-and-go Eagles' offense a spark through the first five games this season.
It's a role he'll fill again Saturday, when the Eagles (1-4, 0-2 Big Sky) look to turn around their season at 16th-ranked UC Davis (3-2, 1-1).
And though Jaxon Bell's teammates may use terms like "miniature" or "baby Bell" to describe him, they follow their head coach's example and avoid calling him Nate's little brother.
"They are their own," Best said. "We're lucky and fortunate to have both Bells on the team."
During the recruiting process, Eastern was looking to add one running back in its class of 2026 high school graduates. But the more they looked at Jaxon Bell, the more they thought they needed to make an exception.
"We felt like he was so special," Best said. "It was like, we can't turn down the opportunity. ... You know what his brother has. (We knew) he was not going to be (exactly the same), but there has got to be some similarities, and boy are we glad we took two in the class and didn't take just one."
During his career at Liberty High School in Brentwood, California — which is only 60 miles from Davis — Jaxon Bell gained 3,342 rushing yards and scored 39 touchdowns, averaging 8.8 yards per carry.
"They did a great job with that for sure, just constantly reminding me I am my own person," Jaxon Bell said, "and that I am getting recruited here for a reason."
This year with the Eagles, Bell has 21 touches for 111 yards from scrimmage, running with a low profile that makes him a challenge to tackle.
"If you ever see the pictures of him cutting, his knee is almost hitting the ground," EWU redshirt sophomore running back Kevin Allen III said. "Maybe sometimes (defenders) don't see him. He's so explosive. He's very powerful. He has a low center of gravity, so they don't expect it, and then he gets up on you, you try to tackle him and then he's right past you.
"He's a very shifty guy just like his brother Nate. They run pretty similar. I always call him a miniature-sized Bell."
Nate Bell, now a redshirt junior who has started all five games this year at quarterback, led the Eagles in rushing last season and so far is doing so again, with 212 yards on 76 carries. He has rushed for six touchdowns, tied for third-most in the Big Sky Conference.
In addition to shouldering some of the rushing load, Jaxon Bell has taken over kickoff and punt returns, and against Cal Poly on Saturday he returned one kick 69 yards. On the season, he has four punt returns for 52 yards.
"I would say I am carving out a role, especially on special teams," Bell said, "trying to get a (kick) return past the 25(-yard line) or a punt return of at least 10 yards."
It seemed unlikely that the Bell brothers would get to play much together this season, considering their three-year age gap (Brenden Bell, the oldest of the three brothers, is three years older than Nate). The only snaps they got together at Liberty High School came in the playoffs when Nate was a senior.
But already this year they have lined up in the backfield together in every game.
"Any opportunity to play this game, we're super blessed, and even more so to play with my brother," Nate Bell said. "It's such a privilege. I reflect on that every day, and I am super grateful for it."
Nate Bell said he wasn't all that involved in Jaxon's recruiting process, other than drawing some attention to him and then answering coaches' questions as they came up. Now that they are teammates, though, and playing together, there are some advantages to their familiarity, Nate said.
"We've played in the backyard and in the street growing up. We played catch every day, honestly," Nate Bell said. "I wouldn't say I trust him any more than my other teammates, but it's a different instinct."
One factor that has made it easier for the Bells to play together this season is the NCAA's new five-for-five rule, which stipulates that college athletes' eligibility lasts only five years but that athletes are no longer limited to four seasons and one redshirt year.
Still, Best made it clear during the preseason that Jaxon Bell was going to get serious consideration for snaps. Through five games, Bell has carved out a role.
"I always thought that I would be able to play at this level," he said, "but playing my freshman year is a special feeling."
That he's playing with his brother makes it all the sweeter.
"I always looked up to (my brothers). They are pretty much the reason I started playing sports," Jaxon Bell said. "I saw the things they were doing and thought, 'Oh yeah, that's what I want to do.' "
