Marcel Reed turns an 11-1 breakout, wild comebacks and SEC road wars into Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award buzz as Texas A&M's next superstar QB.
In just his first season as Texas A&M's full-time starter, Marcel Reed has taken the Aggies from "maybe bowl team" to the College Football Playoff, and now he is up for one of the sport's most unique pieces of hardware.
Reed has been named a finalist for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award, which goes to the most outstanding Division I offensive player with Texas ties.
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The redshirt sophomore quarterback out of Nashville fits the bill after piloting A&M to an 11-1 record and the first CFP berth in program history.
His path to this moment has been anything but easy.
Reed arrived in College Station in 2023 and lived through back-to-back grind-it-out seasons of 7-6 in 2023 and 8-5 in 2024. Instead of bolting for the portal or the NFL, he doubled down on Aggieland.
On Robert Griffin III's podcast this year, Reed even said he will not declare for the 2026 draft and plans to be back at Texas A&M next season.
That loyalty is backed up by production. Reed has thrown for 2,932 yards with 25 touchdowns against 10 interceptions while adding 466 rushing yards and six scores on the ground.
He has delivered in some of the biggest moments of A&M's season, showing the calm late in games that every playoff team has to have.
At No. 8 Notre Dame, Reed shredded the Irish for 360 yards in a 41-40 statement win that announced A&M as a real CFP threat.
Later, on the road in the SEC meat grinder at Arkansas, LSU and Missouri, he proved he could handle hostile environments, including a 108-yard rushing day in Death Valley.
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His wildest act came in the South Carolina shocker, when the Aggies crawled out of a 30-3 halftime hole behind Reed's 439 passing yards and three touchdown strikes, highlighted by a 76-yard bomb to Ashton Bethel-Roman that flipped the game on its head.
From ugly flags in the Auburn win to methodical takedowns of Mississippi State and Florida, to road wars and miracle comebacks, Reed has been the constant.
Whatever happens with the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose voting, Texas A&M has already found its next star ... and he is not done in maroon and white.