Despite Marcel Reed's Recent Hiccups, Silverfield Gives Him His Flowers

FAYETTEVILLE — No one need tell Arkansas how good Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed is when he's at his best.

Reed thew for 280 yards and three touchdowns while adding 55 yards and a score on the ground last year against the Razorbacks in a 45-42 victory for the Aggies inside Razorback Stadium and accounted for three touchdowns in Texas A&M's 2024 win over Arkansas. Texas A&M went on to make the College Football Playoff last year, though they were defeated in the first round by the eventual national runner-up in Miami.

Over the first 10 games of 2025, Reed was excellent, throwing 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions. But in A&M's rivalry matchup with Texas and its CFP loss to Miami, he took a major step back, throwing two picks in both games and not tossing a touchdown in either.

This year, it's been more of the same. Reed was solid against both Missouri State and Arizona State but was largely ineffective in losses to Kentucky (26-49, 236 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions) and No. 11 LSU (10-26, 106 yards, 0 touchdowns, 1 interception).

Still, Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield praised Reed on Monday and made it clear that Arkansas will still have plenty of work to do if it is to slow him down.

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Ryan Silverfield instructs his team from the sideline against Tulsa Golden Hurricane. | Nilsen Roman, Hogs on SI Images

"People are trying to use a two-game sample saying, 'Well, it's not working.' ," Silverfield said. "You can go back and watch where he took them to the College Football Playoff with his arm... I think he is just so capable. Obviously we study those games, see what they did defensively to see if there's anything we can implement within our scheme that will allow us to affect him.

"But listen, there's a reason why your 20-plus game starting quarterback, year three starting quarterback in the SEC and a team captain with that first round draft grade on you, he is certainly capable."

Even if Arkansas is able to disrupt Reed in the passing game, they'll have to stop him on the ground. He was still effective with his legs in Texas A&M's loss to Kentucky, totaling 80 rushing yards and a touchdown despite his struggles through the air.

"We have to do a much better job of stopping these mobile quarterbacks," Silverfield said. "That's something we got to clean up. You try to replicate as much as you can in practice. That's an age-old question: how do you prepare for some of those runaround quarterbacks? But we've got to be on it, and that's the thing about Reed: he can do it with his arms and his legs."

Kickoff between Arkansas and Texas A&M is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday, with coverage on ESPN2 and the Razorback Sports Network.

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