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Mount Mercy starts year-long QB battle
Solon grad Bell and Estrada, from Texas, will run the Mustangs offense during scrimmages, and maybe when the program starts playing games next fall
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CEDAR RAPIDS – Real games are still a year away for Mount Mercy’s new football program.
The time between now and the fall of 2026 will offer plenty of opportunities for development and position battles.
At quarterback, the competition appears to be between former Solon prep Tyler Bell and Texas native Alex Estrada.
“They’re both very respectful young men,” Mount Mercy Coach MD Daniels said after the NAIA-level Mustangs hosted a scrimmage against NCAA Division-III Grinnell on Saturday at Hadzic Field. “They love football. They ask questions, they study, they play the game the way it is supposed to, but they both have different things about them that make them unique.”
All but three of the 57 players on the Mount Mercy roster are freshmen, including Bell and Estrada. The 6-foot, 190-pound Bell threw for 3,265 yards and 33 touchdowns in two seasons as a starter at Solon, which won 18 of 23 games during that span and reached the Class 3A state semifinals in 2023.
At Solon, Bell was not asked to tuck the ball and run a ton. But that appears to be part of his arsenal at Mount Mercy.
“I like running, but I don’t mind getting hit but today was a pretty hard one,” Bell said with a laugh. “I’ll get used to it, but I’ll use my legs. I like doing that.”
Despite no games to play this season, the opportunity to be on the inaugural roster and help get a new football program off the ground in his home state was attractive to Bell.
“Coach Daniels has a way with words,” Bell said. “He is just a good guy, too. And the rest of the coaching staff, as well. They’ve got something good going on here, so why wouldn’t I be a part of that? … The ‘new’ part is cool. You get all the new gear and stuff. A new football building. A whole, new fresh team where everybody is starting from scratch.”
For Estrada – a 5-10, 170-pound lefty – the road from Texas to Iowa connected through Daniels. Estrada threw for 3,620 yards and 43 touchdowns last season at Bay City (Texas), which is located just 38 miles from Daniels’ Texas hometown of Lake Jackson.
“He ended up just texting me one day during the school year,” Estrada said. “Everything that he was saying just made me want to come here. … He knows the background that I come from and the type of ball that we play down there.”
Estrada capped the scrimmage with a long scoring toss to receiver Thomas Murphy of Fort Myers, Fla. On offense, Daniels also praised receiver Gabe Harrell (Sylacauga, Ala.) and offensive lineman James Baumler, a North Fayette Valley graduate.
Scrimmage standouts on defense included California linemen Armani Cortez-Castillo and Easton Sanchez, plus linebacker Shermark Francis (Freeport, Texas).
Mount Mercy will also scrimmage Simpson and Clarke this fall before looking to its 2026 program debut game against Grinnell.
“Our guys also know that they get a year of development in the weight room and in our schemes,” Daniels said. “So that next year, they still have four years of eligibility. They get a full year in the weight room as far as getting physically developed, where other programs you don’t get that. It’s kind of like the best of both worlds.”
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