The college football season is nearly here. And thanks to Week 0, actually college football games will be happening this weekend! We are in the single digits of the countdown, and today features the player who wears the #8 Jersey, Markel Reed.

Credit: Broncosports.com

#8, Markel Reed, 6th year, CB

Stats

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 184 (-6)

High School: Temple HS, Temple, TX

How’d he get to The BlueTM?

Once a Texas Tech commit, Markel decommitted after Kliff Kingsbury was fired from TTU. Mr. Reed was a former three-star recruit from Temple, Texas, who held offers from TTU, Purdue, Arkansas, Baylor, Kansas State, Rutgers, and Vanderbilt. He also had an offer from Cornell (Andy Bernard is very jealous). While at Temple High, he was also on the track team, competing in the triple jump and long jump.

Nickname

“Kel”

I’ve literally heard a coach call him that, so who am I to argue?

Look-alike

Credit: The movie, “Juice”

Let’s not overcomplicate things. Actor, Omar Epps.

Career highlights

Markel has played in 36 games in his 5 seasons with Boise State, starting 11. His first year of playing was as a true freshman alllll the way back in 2019. He’s since had absolutely awful luck with injuries (particularly when he started the opener in 2022 at Oregon State and had a season-ender in that game), but has played pretty well when on the field, totaling 67 tackles, 4 for a loss, and 7 passes defensed. Although no interceptions…yet.

2024 Prospectus

This is hard. On the one hand, Markel has been the model of perseverance in order to come back from multiple substantial injuries.  But the best ability is availability, and because it hasn’t always been there, steps have been taken over the past couple seasons to insure against losing his services. Currently, at least a couple of those insurance policies are threatening to get on the field ahead of him (Earby, Banks, McCoy, etc…). But, if we know nothing else about Markel, we know he’s very hard to count out.

Is he on Twitter?

He is, and he likes Del Taco. And signing things.

Completely made-up fact.

Reed has plans for a post playing career where he owns a series of truck stops. “Highway to Kel” has been bandied about as a business name…

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