He’s a freshman — MBA’s Marcel Reed leads Big Red over Brentwood Academy for fifth straight win – The Tennessean
Marcel Reed doesn’t think about his age.
As a Montgomery Bell Academy freshman starting quarterback, he’s got other things on his mind as he leads the Big Red’s offense.
He has to make sure he runs the proper play. Read the defense and execute.
“Now, it’s just about football,” said Reed, 15, after the Big Red’s 15-7 win over Brentwood Academy for their fifth consecutive win after losing three of their first four games. “I just have to play.
“I like this game a lot. Playing it, I really don’t think about who is older, or who is younger. I’ve played up against older people a lot in different sports.”
Reed, the son of Tennessee State football coach Rod Reed, is 4-0 as the Big Red’s starting quarterback since being inserted against Memphis University School.
He was 7-of-17 for 124 yards with an interception against Brentwood Academy (5-3). He had a 9-yard touchdown pass to Zak Herbstreit in the second quarter and a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to give the Big Red (5-3) a 12-7 lead. Andrew Bulgarino’s 36-yard field goal with 4:19 left ended the scoring.
He is the first freshman quarterback to start at Montgomery Bell Academy since at least 1962, longtime MBA assistant Joe Davis said. Davis has followed or been a part of the program since then.
The storied Big Red football program has won nine of its 10 state championships since 1967.
At first, MBA coach Marty Euverard had no plans to start Reed.
“We took him with us to summer camp,” Euverard said. “We weren’t sure if we were going to play him up (on the varsity). But we took him to Bell Buckle to camp and his work ethic made me second guess everything I was thinking about playing him on the freshman team.
“I just started giving him some reps with the older guys, and he just kept evolving. He wasn’t ready at the beginning, but golly, he has so much poise.”
MBA’s win over the Eagles was its second straight in the regular season by a combined nine points. It marks the first time since 2014 that the Eagles have lost three games in a season.
Brentwood Academy played without standout middle linebacker Devyn Curtis, who sat out the game with an ankle injury. The Eagles did get starting quarterback Wade Williams back in the offense after being out several weeks with an injury.
The Eagles managed just 108 total yards of offense.
Reed is 43-of-79 passing for 728 yards and six touchdowns this season.
“My dad knows a lot about defense,” said Reed, who is 6-1, 152 pounds. “He was a defensive coordinator before he became the head coach at TSU.
“He knows a lot about coverages. He has taught me a lot about how to read them.”
He’s MBA’s starting quarterback as a freshman even though his main sport is basketball.
“Football may change that,” he said. “Being in a football family helps a lot.”
Euverard said he believes football is his top sport.
“It’s football,” said Euverard with a laugh. “His best sport is football.”
Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.
Published 5:12 PM EDT Oct 12, 2019
