College football has always been about family ties, parents passing on their legacy to their kids. Just look at Buffs’ dynamic father-son duo, Deion Sanders and Shedeur Sanders, who took their team to the national spotlight last season. But they aren’t the only ones on the list. Even Marcel Reed, who is taking his Aggies to new heights with a perfect 4-0 run this year, is drawing inspiration from his father, Rod Reed, whose coaching gig at Tennessee State University shaped Marcel into the explosive player he is today.

Texas A&M are on their first 4 straight wins of the season since 2016, and a lot of it is due to Marcel Reed’s dominance on the field. But it wasn’t a one-day turnaround. It’s the result of years of development by being around his dad. During his father’s 30 year career, he led TSU to multiple successful seasons and even coached as a DC and LB coach at East Texas Baptist University and holds a 57-60 overall record. All that grind and adversity helped Marcel to reach this level of excellence today.

Paul Finebaum hit X with a video of Reed speaking about how that environment affected his mindset and shaped him into the player he is today: “Just me being around, just me being around my dad and his players at Tennessee State I was always around. I mean, I was going with him at away games, riding the bus, pregame meals, and all meetings. And, you know, I feel like just being around that environment my whole life as a kid kind of prepared me a lot more than others to be in an environment like it.”

The best part is despite playing on the defensive side of the ball, his father’s wisdom shaped Marcel in the best way possible. “It’s definitely a blessing, and I appreciate him for being a coach and teaching me some things, you know. Even though he’s on the defensive side, he’s helped me out as a quarterback,” Reed said. But it’s not just the learnings but also the support Marcel gets from his father all the time.

Back in August, ahead of the season, the Week to Week CFB page on X posted quarterback rankings for the 2025 preseason, which had the names of Cade Klubnik, LaNorris Sellers, Drew Allar, and 22 others. But the shocker was that Reed’s name was not there on the list, and that’s when his dad hopped in, giving it back to that X post, “The disrespect continues!” It’s understandable that after getting benched for most of the 2023 season and backing Conner Weigman last season, the preseason rankings didn’t have Marcel’s name in them. But despite that, his dad believed in his son’s grit, and the result is pretty evident.

Marcel Reed turned heads against Auburn, going in for 15 of 22 passes for 207 yards, and after an impressive game, he’s also holding onto the thought of how well his team is going to perform for the rest of the season. “Just stay with us,” Reed said after the win against Auburn. “We are going to keep performing to the best of our ability. If you want to be on our side, then be on our side, and if you don’t, then don’t.”

Marcel Reed’s big career feat

Coming off the win against Auburn, Marcel Reed has now become the second-fastest Aggies QB to achieve 4000 career total offensive yards. That’s right. He is just behind Johnny Manziel himself. His best game came against Notre Dame’s dynamic defense, where Reed threw for a career-high 360 yards with an 86-yard TD reception for WR Mario Craver. Now in just 4 games, Reed has recorded 1076 yards with 119 rushing yards, 10 TDs, and just two interceptions.

Back in 2023, he didn’t see much action on the field but still recorded 419 total yards with a TD. Then the 2024 season became the turning point of Reed’s career when he started midway against LSU. Reed threw two passes, one for 54 yards and another for 62 yards, and ended his game with a career-high three rushing TDs. Despite the pressure, he completed his season, recording 1,864 yards with 15 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.

It’s pretty clear that Marcel Reed is not stopping anytime soon. So, let’s just wait and see how this year turns out for him, as the real test lies in front of him in the form of LSU, Missouri, and Texas later in the season.