By Andreas Butler, Daytona Times
Bethune-Cookman University has hired NFL Hall of Famer Ed Reed to be its next football coach.
The announcement was made via the school’s athletic website www.bcuathletics.com on Dec. 27.
Reed will become the 16th head coach in the school’s history. He replaces Terry Sims who was fired after seven seasons.
The Wildcats went 2-9 overall and 2-6 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) in both 2021 and 2022.
Over the past two seasons and since their move to the SWAC, they have gone 4-18 overall and 4-12 in conference play.
Reed, 44, spent 12 seasons in the NFL, including 11 with the Baltimore Ravens where he won a Super Bowl, made nine Pro Bowls and was selected All-Pro five times. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019.
Before the NFL, he was a star at the University of Miami in college and was a member of their 2001 national championship team.
This will also be Reed’s first head coaching job.
For the past three years, he has been working in a support role at his alma matter under head coach Mario Cristobal.
“We are excited to hear that Ed Reed has been named the head football coach at Bethune-Cookman. Ed is one of the best to ever wear a Miami Hurricanes uniform and has served as a great mentor to our student athletes over the past three years. He will do a tremendous job with the Wildcats program and the entire Miami family wishes him well,” stated University of Miami Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich.
Reed also spent the 2016 season as an assistant defensive backs coach with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
He joins a list of HBCU coaches with NFL experience.
Reed is friends with Deion Sanders, who is now the coach at Colorado. Sanders led Jackson State from 2020-2022 and went 27-5 during that span with back-to- back SWAC titles. The Tigers were 11-2 in 2022.
Reed also will become the second NFL Hall of Famer to be head coach at Bethune-Cookman.
Larry Little led the program from 1983-1991.
