Spring Breakout Player: Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed

The sixth installment of our Spring SEC Breakout players heads to College Station. Marcel Reed, the second year signal caller, heads into his second season. 

Reed burst on the scene in 2024 filling in for an injured Conner Weigman, a former five-star recruit and the game one starter for the Aggies to start the season. 

Explosive Backup

From the jump Reed was labeled as an athlete and plus-runner who struggled throwing the football. Most of those generalizations felt much more stereotypical than accurate. Reed finished the season completing 61 percent of his passes, 2,403 yards of total offense and 22 touchdowns. 

Looking through the media guide. For a single season among freshmen in A&M history, QB Marcel Reed ranked second in pass yards (1,864) and completions (147), third in pass TDs (15), T-10th in rush TDs (7), and 14th in rush yards (547). Reed appeared in 11 games with eight starts.

— Carter Karels (@CarterKarels) December 30, 2024

Adding Weapons

He did all of that with one of the most underwhelming receiving corps in the SEC. At the very least, that issue should be shored up in the 2025 season. The Aggies were one of the biggest spenders in the transfer portal this offseason and spent a lot of focus on offensive weapons and pass catchers. 

The Aggies signed four receivers in their portal class and two tight ends. The headliners were  KJ Concepcion and Micah Hudson who were ranked as the No. 5 and No. 6 receivers in the portal. Hudson’s future is in a bit of flux as of right now but the former five-star would be a huge addition regardless. They also added tight end Amari Niblack from Texas. Niblack didn’t put up great numbers in Austin, but he has three years of experience against SEC competition after playing for Alabama in 2022-2023. 

Expert’s Take

We talked to Robert Behrens, the managing editor at Goodbullhunting.com, for his thoughts on Reed. 

Redshirt freshman Marcel Reed took over as Texas A&M’s starting QB midway through the 2024 season, thanks in no small part to his dual-threat capability. In eight games as the starter, Reed completed 61.7% of his passes, averaged over 270 total yards and scored 2.3 touchdowns per game. Based on ESPN’s QBR metric, Reed was the third-best underclassmen QB in the country last year, behind only Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt and Tulane’s Darian Mensah. Reed’s youth alone could be reason to expect improvement in 2025; add in the fact that he will be in his second year in OC Collin Klein’s offense and returns his entire starting offensive line, and it’s not hard to see the breakout potential for the Aggie signal caller.

Reed isn’t garnering the same attention as second year starters like DJ Lagway and LaNorris Sellers. He’s clearly not getting the same hype as Arch Manning. However, if Reed progresses in year two like people in College Station expect him to, then he has a chance to lead his team further into the postseason than any other quarterback in the league. That’s how good he, and the Aggies can be. 

The question is will Reed, and the A&M program as a whole, finally live up to those expectations?