BY Brian Bainum
Plopping himself down on the wooden bleachers at Memorial Stadium, Kyle Reed finally has a chance to catch his breath. Having just completed a series of extra sprints while the rest of the Cal football team was ambling off the field and up into the locker room, Reed quickly sheds the red “untouchable” jersey he had been wearing due to his recently sprained right shoulder. “Hey, put that jersey back on!” shouts teammate Lavelle Hawkins playfully from across the field, looking at the jersey lying in a heap at the young quarterback’s feet. “Naw man, I can’t be wearing this,” counters Reed with a grin. In reality, Reed will have to wear the hated red for the rest of spring practice. He will have to watch from the sidelines as his fellow quarterbacks take the reps. He will have to store away information without physically doing it. “That’s what sucks about it,” says Reed. “I’ll miss the last week of spring ball.”
It’s not that the injury is anything to worry about—Reed expects to be healthy in two weeks. And it’s not as if Reed’s bum shoulder will set him back in the fall—up until the injury Saturday, the sophomore from Oakland had registered his most impressive spring in a Bears uniform. Nevertheless, being on the sidelines, even if temporarily, has been an all-too-familiar occurrence for Reed in his first two years in Jeff Tedford’s quarterback fold. He redshirted his freshman year and played on the practice squad on last season’s 10-2 team. Now, he appears to be locked in a battle with redshirt freshman Kevin Riley for the No. 2 quarterback position behind Nate Longshore. “Coming into the spring, I had a chip on my shoulder,” says Reed. “I wanted to really let people know I had the offense under my belt and that I am ready for the next challenge. I worked really hard with Coach (Kevin) Daft and it’s all helped me out.” That was the knock on Reed earlier in his career—he was clearly talented, but still did not grasp the intricacies of Tedford’s complex playbook. Now, it seems there is tangible progress being made. “Spring is a chance for him to get a lot of reps,” says Tedford. “There is a lot of learning going on with that, and he’s made a lot of strides.” Take last week for example. When Longshore missed a practice, Reed stepped in with the first team and displayed some of the talent that made him one of the top prospects in Northern California coming out of McClymonds High. He threw darts all around the field, hitting DeSean Jackson, Robert Jordan and Hawkins on long and short routes.
“Overall he’s doing really well right now,” says Jordan. “I’m proud of him. He’s accepted his role as the backup quarterback, and he said his only job right now is to push Nate and to make both of them better players. As long as Kyle continues to do what he says and get better, the offense is going to be rolling.” The backup role was not an easy one for Reed to accept, at least not initially. He says he was confused when told to take “mental reps,” by watching from the sidelines, and then be expected to know each play by heart. “I had to humble myself and be mature and understand that this was a process,” says Reed. “Of course it was frustrating to sit out and watch and be told to take mental reps, because you’re like, ‘What the (hell) is a mental rep?’ But in actuality, it comes together and it actually works. It’s just a matter of humbling yourself and being able to adapt.” If Reed were frustrated on the inside, it didn’t show, at least not to Tedford. “He did a great job of keeping his head in the game and making sure he stayed focused,” Tedford said. “It comes with experience.” And patience, too. Despite the frustrating times on the practice squad last season, Reed says he never considered transferring to another program where he might have had a better chance to play sooner.
“Coach Tedford has always let me know where I stand,” says Reed. “He’s always told me if I get this, this and this done, I’ll be this, this and this.” At this point in his career, the “this” appears to be the ability to put into practical use all of the playbook study and chalk talk preparation he has undergone with Daft, the new quarterbacks coach. In spurts, everything seems to be clicking for Reed. At other times, he still appears tentative. However, the former is becoming more common than the latter as of late. As the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder walks off the practice field, he wears a face of maturity that rarely shows emotion and gives him the look of a veteran, except for the rare moments when he’ll break into a smile and flash braces that underscore his relative youth. And why not smile? With only two years down of what could be potentially a five-year career, Reed sees himself as progressing just fine. “It’s all coming together,” he says. “A few minor mistakes here and there, but it’s really starting to come together and translate on the field.”
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