Dia Bell
View Full Profile →Dia Bell is a five-star quarterback by PrepRanks, with a 92.60 score, and a four-star by two of the three services that rate him. ON3 and 247Sports each give him a 97.00 rating and four stars. ESPN gives him a 91 grade and five. Of the three, only ON3 puts a national number on him: 33rd, fourth among quarterbacks and first in Florida.
The softest piece of the score is the offer list. Bell is at the maximum for offer count, 15.00 of 15, but his offer quality is 2.00 of 10, or 20%. That is the lowest share of any component in his breakdown. The two honors in his file, the Elite 11 Finals MVP and the Florida Gatorade Player of the Year award, sit beside a senior season that lasted two games. As of Oct. 15, 2026, PrepRanks lists him as signed with Texas.
Service ratings and ranks
ON3 and 247Sports rate Bell identically at 97.00 with four stars. ESPN grades him 91 and gives him five. The star totals do not follow the numbers, since ESPN has the lowest rating of the three and the highest star count. Rivals lists no rating, stars or rank for him.
The rankings split in a different way. ON3 has him 33rd nationally, fourth among quarterbacks and first among Florida prospects. 247Sports has him fifth among quarterbacks and fourth in Florida, with no national rank. ESPN has no rank at all. Rank changes are flat at ON3 and 247Sports, while ESPN shows an increase. Momentum is 10.00 of 20.
PrepRanks averages the services into a score of 47.94 out of 50, 96% of the maximum, which is how a player with two four-star ratings still lands at five stars.
American Heritage and the schedule
American Heritage, the Patriots of Plantation, Florida, is where Bell played all of this. The PrepRanks Power Five Regional Advantage index gives him an 80 and credits the exposure that comes from playing top competition in Florida. That is a PrepRanks metric and not a scouting call, but 247Sports points the same way when it says some of his best games came against state championship-caliber defenses.
What Bell did before the injuries
In 2024 Bell led American Heritage to a 9-2 record before a lower leg injury ended his season in the Class 4A regional semifinals. He completed 161 of 228 passes, 70.6%, for 2,597 yards, with 29 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. He threw fewer than one interception for every four touchdowns. He also ran for 561 yards and 5 touchdowns at 8.4 yards per carry. His 2023 rushing line was 86 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The year before, as a first-year starter, he went 10-2 and completed 122 of 189 passes, 64.6%, for 1,929 yards, 20 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Between 2023 and 2024 the completion rate rose from 64.6% to 70.6%, the touchdown total rose from 20 to 29, and the interception total rose from 4 to 6.
Before that, he was the backup. In 2022 Bell was QB2 behind ULM signee Blake Murph on a 13-2 American Heritage team that reached Florida's 2M title game, and he completed 13 of 21 passes for 317 yards and 4 touchdowns in 9 games. In 2021 he appeared in 4 games as an eighth grader, attempting 12 passes and scoring two rushing touchdowns.
A senior season that lasted two games
Bell was the Elite 11 Finals MVP in the summer of 2025. In the fall he played 2 games for American Heritage before season-ending surgery. The team went 1-1 in those games. He completed 43 of 68 passes, 63.2%, for 540 yards with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions, and carried 23 times for 98 yards. 247Sports credits him with leading a four-touchdown rally against St. Joseph's Prep on ESPN.
The 63.2% completion rate in those two games sits below his 70.6% in 2024, on 68 attempts. That is too small a sample to say much beyond what 247Sports already says: Bell "exits high school with a bit of an incomplete resume after missing a pair of postseason runs due to injury."
Where the 92.60 comes from
PrepRanks scores a recruit on service rankings, a recruiting reality component built on offers, momentum, position scarcity, stability and elite recognition. Here is how Bell's rows read:
| Component | Score | Max | Share of max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Average | 47.94 | 50 | 96% |
| Recruiting Reality | 17.00 | 25 | 68% |
| • Offer Count | 15.00 | 15 | 100% |
| • Offer Quality | 2.00 | 10 | 20% |
| Momentum | 10.00 | 20 | 50% |
| Position Scarcity | 6.67 | 10 | 67% |
| Stability | 4.00 | 5 | 80% |
| Elite Recognition | 7.00 | 10 | 70% |
| TOTAL | 92.60 | 100 | 92.60% |
The offer count and offer quality rows add up to the 17.00 for recruiting reality, which is 68% of that component's 25 points. The remaining rows add to the total within rounding. Offer count is the only row at 100%. Offer quality is the only one at 20%, and it is the one input that reflects what programs did instead of what evaluators wrote.
Elite recognition is 7.00 of 10. The honors that sit behind it in his file are the Elite 11 Finals MVP and the Florida Gatorade Player of the Year award. Stability is 4.00 of 5, and position scarcity is 6.67 of 10.
What 247Sports wrote in December 2025
Andrew Ivins, 247Sports director of scouting, evaluated Bell on 12/17/2025. He lists a projection of second to third round, Day 2, and compares Bell to Oregon's Dante Moore. Ivins calls him a "smooth passer with a good natural feel for the position that can be a difference-maker on Saturdays and then Sundays if he keeps progressing."
The technical notes are specific. Ivins says Bell "scans the field better than most his age as he will diagnose coverages before the snap and work through his progressions." He writes that ball placement at the short and intermediate levels "demonstrates precision timing," and that Bell is "lethal with the deep ball." Under pressure, Bell is "frequently calm and collected" as he will "climb and slide away from pressure with crafty movements."
The criticism is one line. Bell "must improve durability, but is one of the better pure throwers of the football in the 2026 cycle with his mechanics and accuracy." Ivins also writes that Bell "would benefit from a developmental year or two, but arm talent and processing power could have him in the mix rather early."
Physical profile and background
Bell is listed at over 6-foot-2 with 10-inch hands. 247Sports says he "could undergo a physical transformation at some point down the line." PrepRanks puts his Size Premium Index at 50, which it calls adequate for a quarterback, and his Quarterback Premium Index at 90.
He also played basketball. MaxPreps numbers in the 247Sports report show 20.7 points, 5.0 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game as a freshman, then 13.9 points and 5.1 rebounds as a sophomore. His father, Raja Bell, attended FIU, spent 12 seasons in the NBA and was named twice to the league's All-Defensive Team. PrepRanks gives his positional athleticism transfer a 70 and ties it to the basketball background.
The Texas commitment
Bell committed to Texas on June 17, 2024. PrepRanks lists the commitment as signed, puts Texas in the SEC and rates the commitment risk level LOCKED, with no numeric risk score. His market value index is 100, the top of that scale, which describes demand for him and is not a sign that the commitment is in play.
PrepRanks calls the Texas offense under Steve Sarkisian a fit for a quarterback with progression skills and describes Bell as a developmental profile. Its read on playing time is that he could compete early if the durability questions settle. No Texas snaps are counted here.
The offer list
The offer count and offer quality are the two inputs that come from programs and not from evaluators. An offer-count score at its 15-point maximum and a quality score of 2.00 of 10 describe a list that is long but light on the elite programs that the best quarterbacks attract. PrepRanks calls the 2.00 low for a five-star quarterback and reads it as caution from the top programs, with demand concentrated among programs that favor development.
The star ratings carry a similar signal. Two of the three services that rate him stop at four stars, and 247Sports, the service with the most detailed report, ties its caution to injuries and a thin senior sample.
Counterpoint
A low offer-quality score does not have to mean low interest. Bell committed on June 17, 2024, before his junior season was played, and a commitment that early may have cut off offers that would otherwise have come. The data does not say either way.
The film evidence also runs in his favor. Bell has a Gatorade award, an Elite 11 Finals MVP and a 2024 line of 70.6% and 29 touchdowns to 6 interceptions. A projection of second to third round from 247Sports is not a four-star shrug. The 2.00 may say more about when Bell committed than about how programs see him.
Summary of the data
As of Oct. 15, 2026, the numbers point in two directions. The service average of 47.94, the 2024 production and the two honors put Bell in the top group of the 2026 class, and ESPN's five stars match the PrepRanks label. ON3 also has him first among Florida prospects. The offer quality of 2.00, the four-star ratings at ON3 and 247Sports, the single national rank and a 2025 season that covers 68 pass attempts do not.