Spartans' Reed ready after long road
Print
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
In the immediate moment after delivering San Jose State a 13-10 victory against UC-Davis by throwing a 17-yard touchdown pass with just eight seconds to spare, Kyle Reed allowed himself an impromptu celebration that matched his first collegiate performance.
It came out of nowhere.
The third quarterback to play for the Spartans, Reed, a junior who gave up a year of eligibility when he transferred from Cal after his redshirt freshman season, celebrated his long but sweet road back to football by backpedaling all the way to San Jose State’s end of the field. There, he removed his helmet and whooped it up as he took in the jubilant scene 70 yards away.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite like what happened,” said Spartans Dick Tomey, who you would think had seen it all in 45 years of coaching.
Of course, no sooner had Tomey calmed himself down, he offered a player who in 2004 had been ranked the No. 4 quarterback coming out of high school some quick advice.
“‘Enjoy it, but this day is over. It’s back to work,’” Reed recalled his coaching saying.
Reed vowed to take that to heart after being named the starter for Saturday’s game at Nebraska.
Based on how he prepared for this season and then performed in adverse conditions, the Spartans should know the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder is a man of his word.
At Cal, Reed redshirted in 2005 and then got beat out for the starting spot in 2006 by sophomore Nate Longshore. Knowing that Kevin Riley, a highly regarded freshmen then, also figured heavily into the Bears’ plans, Reed decided it’d be best for him to transfer.
Having already taken a liking to Tomey in 2004 when San Jose State’s first-year coach came to recruit some of his teammates at Oakland’s McClymonds High, Reed noticed how the Spartans had gone 9-4 and won the New Mexico Bowl in 2006, and the more he learned about the program, the more he wanted to join it.
Still, he had to spend last season running the scout team, and when it came time in spring to compete with two other hopeful starters, Reed broke a foot doing an agility run and was forced to sit out.
In the meantime, another junior, Myles Eden, went through spring scrimmages without committing a turnover to take control of the position, while sophomore Jordan LaSecla was consistent enough to earn the backup spot.
Encouraged by Tomey and quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo to press on, Reed learned last Tuesday that all three quarterbacks would see action in the opener, with LaSecla being inserted for the third series and Reed for the second of the second half.
As fate would have it, San Jose State trailed 10-0 when Reed entered, and he proceeded to take the Spartans 43 yards for a touchdown. Along the way, he completed two third-down passes to keep the drive going, and finished it with a fourth-and-goal completion.
Tomey opted to stick with him, and after the Spartans had to punt and missed a field goal on the next two series, Reed took the field for one final shot starting from the San Jose State 36 with 1:23 to play.
He would account for every yard, finding Kevin Jurovich for a key 37-yard gain on the third play of the drive and then, after being sacked three plays later and out of timeouts, came back to connect with Jurovich again on a fourth-and-13 play that sent him into a long backpedal.
“I mean, people don’t understand how amazing a job he did, because he’s not played in a football game in three years and probably nine months,” Tomey said. “He had so much poise and so much pressure because of the circumstances and he, running and throwing, just did a lot of things very, very well.”
Reed finished 14-for-18 passing for 132 yards and two TDs. He also was the Spartans’ leading rusher with 28 yards on seven carries.
And yes, the performance had Tomey pinching himself.
“He got third-team reps (in practice), you know? If we had a team period that had 16 plays in it, or 20 plays, he probably got four,” Tomey said. “But he just made it his business to know what to do and to get mental reps and to anticipate the fact that he was going to play.
“… Obviously, it turned out better than we could’ve possibly hoped.”
But now that the Spartans have come back from the clouds, Reed has a different story in mind for his sequel.
“I think that was my first time being able to rally my team in the last eight seconds. Hopefully, we don’t have to do that this week, and play sound football,” he said. “Even though it was an exciting moment in my life, I’ve tried my best to leave that in the past, just focus on what I have to do (against Nebraska).”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
Most Commented Football