Ed Reed, a Super Bowl champion and nine-time Pro Bowl selection with the Baltimore Ravens, has agreed to become the next head football coach at Bethune-Cookman, the university announced Tuesday.
Reed, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019, becomes the latest high-profile former athlete to coach in the HBCU ranks.
Deion Sanders was at Jackson State from 2020 until he took the head job at Colorado earlier this month. Eddie George has been the head coach at Tennessee State since 2021.
A historically black university located in Daytona Beach, Florida, Bethune-Cookman is an FCS program. It won six MEAC championships since 2000, but has struggled since joining the SWAC in 2021.
Ed Reed, a Super Bowl champion and nine-time Pro Bowl selection with the Baltimore Ravens, has spent the past three seasons on the support staff at his alma mater, Miami, most recently as a senior football advisor. Doug Murray/Icon Sportswire
Their previous coach, Terry Sims, was fired in late November after going 2-9 in back-to-back seasons. The Wildcats’ athletic director is Reggie Theus, former NBA player and former coach of the Sacramento Kings. Theus is also the head men’s basketball coach at Bethune-Cookman.
Bethune-Cookman’s press release announcing that Reed had “entered into an agreement in principle … to be its 16th head football coach” lacked details.
Reed, 44, has spent the past three seasons on the support staff at his alma mater, Miami, most recently as a senior football adviser under coach Mario Cristobal.
“We are excited to hear that Ed has been named the head football coach at Bethune-Cookman,” said Miami Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich. “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 great job leading the Wildcats program and the entire Miami family wishes him well everything. the best.”
Prior to his move to Miami’s staff, Reed was an assistant defensive backs coach with the Buffalo Bills in 2016.
Reed, who is from Louisiana, was part of Miami’s 2001 national championship team.
He was drafted in the first round by the Ravens in 2002 and led the league in interceptions three times. He holds the NFL record for interception return yards.
This report used information from The Associated Press.