Everyone in Kentucky knows Kentucky’s 2021 class of prospects has a real “bell-ringer” at DE named Darion DeaRINGer. Most in Kentucky are familiar with referencing one having one’s “bell-rung” denotes one having the ever-loving Hell knocked out of them. Well, DeaRINGer is a real bell-RINGer.
At KPGFootball, we enjoy researching the etymology of expressions such as “ringing one’s bell.” We can tell you that, in all of our 50 or so years of life, the expression has been around and widely believed to mean getting knocked into next week. One may also notice Darion Dearinger, who rings tons of bells around Kentucky High School football has the word “RING” right in his surname. How convenient. How fitting.
There is a spring-action apparatus, still used on the mid-way of carnivals today, which summons one to take a sledge hammer, hit a target with as much force as one can muster, in the hopes it will send a small weight up a slide to a bell located at the top. Not too sure this device isn’t rigged with some braking arrangement to prevent the local Hercules from walking off with all the prizes, but we digress. Hitting something as hard as one can, resulting in a bell being rung, is one theory of the origin of the colloquialism.
Another theory may come from the world of prize-fighting. Getting one’s bell rung has always been attenuated to the after shock of getting violently impacted to the head. Boxers, for instance, upon being knocked out, would hear a bell rung to signal the end of the fight. A particularly successful boxer, who won by knockout much of the time, was often referenced as his being a “bell-ringer.”
Darion DeaRINGer is a Kentucky high school football version of a “bell-ringer.” What makes him so? Well it could be his size. He is a 6-4, 250-pound, prototypical DE, possessing both excellent length and bend. It could be his speed and agility as he moves very well. Darion has been clocked at 4.7 in the 40-yard dash and his pro-AGILITY shuttle (5-10-5) is under 4.5-seconds.
It could be his power as Darion bench presses 305-pounds though only a sophomore, back-squats 455-pounds, and deadlifts 475. It could be Darion’s vertical explosion as he power-cleans 300-pounds and is the proud owner of a nearly-30-inch vertical leap.
What ever the reason, Darion Dearinger is a real “bell-ringer” and has collected the post-season hardware one would expect for a player of his skill-level and at his stage of development. For instance, Dearinger has been selected, the past two years, to KPGFootball’s freshman and sophomore All-State teams. Darion has been selected to the National Undergraduate Combine‘s All-American team. Darion has also been listed, by most recruiting services, as occupying a rung at the very top of Kentucky’s college football prospects’ ladder in its 2021 graduating class.
As for his on-field production, we feel it important, before giving over the numbers, to set the table a wee-little bit. It isn’t like he is an unknown and teams are running the ball right at him. We don’t know much about the player the Bearcats have aligned opposite Dearinger, and we are sure he is very tough; but most opponents would concede anything beats running the football right at Dearinger. We mean, one wouldn’t want to get his back’s bell rung!
In spite of opponents running away from him and opponents assigning additional blockers to his side, Darion still had 52 total tackles in 2018. Darian also collected 13 TFLs and 4 QB sacks to go along with a forced fumble.
So if any college should be looking for a guy to come screaming off the end looking for some targets to hammer, it would make sense to enlist a bell-RINGer. No better place to find a bell-RINGer than someone who has the word “RING” already prominently positioned in his surname.
Reporting for KPGFootball, this is Fletcher Long reminding all of you ballers out there to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE.
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Darian Dearinger’s Sophomore Highlights!
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