Playoff-bound Marcel Reed ready to perform in A&M's first-round game

Key notes from Marcel Reed interview

• There are some play calls that are long sometimes, but it’s nothing like the NFL, which will have two or three calls in one play. They have a play or two they can check to. We have a “maybe this or that,” but nothing nearly as long as the NFL. There are levels to it, for sure.
   
• Receivers are last to the party on play calls. It’s hard for them to run routes, get back while trying to look at signals. There are alterations to the signals that they have to pay attention to as well. The receivers do a pretty good job with it, but it is an operation. We’ve been practicing it for a long time.
   
• There have been multiple games where a team has switched up what they normally run on defense, and that’s best for them to try and take away what we run. We have different plays we can adjust and get to. Honestly, it is hard to adjust after you’ve been practicing against a certain coverage all week, but we can adjust, though. There are also teams that run what we practiced, but they’re really good at running it. Missouri and Auburn played what they do really well. We knew what we were getting into, but they were really tough.
   
• This is what we expected on offense. We’ve been practicing all fall, spring and summer. You’ve seen guys put the work in, and we do it to our defense. They get behind the defense because we have some fast, twitchy guys. It was just a matter of me getting the ball in their hands and letting them go play. We’re making explosive plays just like I said we were going to do.
   
• I feel great with the time off. My body is good. We had a lot of players who were banged up but are not healthy. The rest and time off have been good for our bodies and our heads. Mentally, playing all of these SEC games is a lot. Alabama talked about it, and they don’t get much reward for going to the SEC Championship Game and losing. Getting there is hard to do. It’s good to have some time off, but it sucked that we didn’t get that last win to go to Atlanta. I don’t want to say that this is what we needed, but maybe it is. We might have needed a wakeup call. We’ve been hitting snooze too much this year. We’ve got the rest we needed, and now we’re looking toward the challenge ahead.
   
• I didn’t know what it was with the injury at Texas. I remember being in shock and being scared at the same time. I slipped on the turf, but my cleat got caught, so my ankle rolled. My knee hyperextended at the same time. It was just wrong. I was laying on the ground, but I wasn’t in too my pain. I thought it was over. When they did the knee exam on the field, it was fine, but my ankle was hurting a little bit. I knew I could play on that ankle.
   
• We could have attacked the line of scrimmage a little more in the run game vs. Texas. Some draw plays could’ve helped. Once I dropped back, they sent some people out. If I dropped back and then handed it off, we could have gotten seven or nine yards. Our offensive line did a good job, but they can only hold out so long when our guys are running deep routes. We have to be more physical up front, and we have to be able to run the ball. You can’t be one-dimensional in a game like that, but I felt like we were. We just needed to take what they gave us. In the second half, we could run it a little, but we couldn’t throw it despite being in the situation we were in.
   
• Last Sunday, I was just waiting to see who we’d play. I had an idea of who it may have been, but I knew it was going to be Notre Dame, Alabama or Miami. You have to think like that, and the coaches were thinking like that because they wanted to get a head start. We know we’re in the playoffs now. I wasn’t thinking too far ahead, though.
   
• It’s cool to see us against Miami, but us vs. any name would be cool to see. When you see a brand like Miami going against a brand like Texas A&M or the history of some of those games... I was a freshman when we lost at Miami. When you see the announcement on national television, you know it’s going to be a big game. College GameDay is coming. We’ll have some viewers.
   
• I’ve spent two or three days watching Miami’s defense. Rueben Bain Jr. and that defense are solid. The secondary is fast. I’m trying to analyze where we’re going to try and attack. What are we looking for when going against their defense? I’ll probably go back and watch the Louisville game while looking at our script to play a game of “what ifs.”
   
• I have not crossed paths with Carson Beck before.
   
• When you think about where we were before we took the loss. We were at No. 3 and dropped down to No. 7. I think that says a lot about what people think about our program. When we won all these games, people said they’re not good wins. The internet is going to say what it’s going to say, and that’s not what we want to worry about. We’re not worried about what the media says. Against our schedule next year, they’ll probably predict us to go 8-4 again, and when we win games, they’ll probably again say those aren’t good wins.
   
• These are the games you want to play. This is what you sign up for as a kid. This is one of the main reasons I wanted to play in the SEC, and these are the games I want to be in. I want all the people in the world watching. It’s time to go perform.
   
• I was the first person Collin Klein called when he found out he was going to be the head coach at Kansas State. I told him I was proud of him because I knew it was the place he always wanted to go. I would do the same thing if I had the chance to go back to my alma mater. He’s ready to finish this season out with us and call these games to win. Everybody has full confidence in him, and we’re ready to go play Miami.
   
• If I’m coaching somewhere and A&M wants me to come back to College Station, I’ll be here.
   
• I’ve taken a step back to think about this. I didn’t know who was going to be the coach during my freshman year, but I always had it in my mind that I’d be a winner. With my roommate Dalton Brooks and Taurean York, we’ve manifested. We’ve talked about what the culture needed to look like, and all the good and bad in the locker room and how we were going to fix it when we were upperclassmen. Mike Elko has helped with that. We’ve gotten Texas A&M on the right path, and we want all the blue-chip recruits to come play for the best fans in the country and win championships.