Isaiah Reed is coming home to the Sunshine State.
The Brown cornerback and Tampa native committed to UCF on Saturday, ending a month-long transfer portal recruitment. UCFSports.com caught up with him to talk about his decision.
"I feel like I'm playing for the hometown team," Brown said. "USF is the closet school, but UCF is like right next door. I've always known a lot of people who went to UCF. It's going to be great to be able to play for a team close to home. I'm going to be able to have my family there. I was all the way up north at Brown, so my family wasn't always able to attend the games. My mom was almost as excited as me."
As a graduate transfer, Reed was an earlier entry in the transfer portal and got his UCF offer on Nov. 21. He was initially recruited by Jeris McIntyre, UCF's Director of High School Relations and Recruiting Analyst who also is the former head coach at Tampa Catholic. Those discussions cooled after the unexpected coaching change that saw the departure of Gus Malzahn.
Scott Frost ultimately got the job, returning to Orlando where he had a highly successful run from 2016-17. One of Frost's first staff hires was FAU's Jeff Love as Executive Director of Player Personnel.
"FAU was actually one of my first offers and I had been talking to Coach Love," Reed said. "I guess Coach Love and Coach McIntyre got together and realized they had both been recruiting me. I just got home to Tampa earlier this week and Coach Love called me up and asked for me to get down there for a visit. The rest is history."
McIntyre was his primary host during his official visit, which took place on Thursday.
"The visit was great," Reed said. "My high school recruitment was during the COVID year so I didn't get to take any visits. I was able to tour the facilities, stadium and campus. I got to sit down with the defensive coordinator, Coach (Alex) Grinch and Coach Frost. I got to see everything that I needed to see and I heard everything I needed to hear, so I felt comfortable with my decision. I'm ready to work."
Other offers included Texas Tech, Stanford, South Florida, West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Houston, Baylor and Kansas. He visited Texas Tech a couple weeks ago. He was set to visit Baylor this weekend before UCF re-entered the picture.
Reed absolutely loved UCF's decision to re-hire Frost.
"Bringing back Coach Frost is huge," Reed said. "For me personally, I was in the eighth or ninth grade when Coach Frost was there the first time and the National Championship happened. UCF was the place to be in 2017. I felt like that was a really good hire. I really liked meeting him, loved the energy that he brings. He's excited to be back at UCF and coming in from the League. He's coming back to something he started and wants to finish it even better. I knew when I was talking to him that this is something I want to be a part of. "
Frost told Reed they'd have news soon in regards to a DB coach. He did meet extensively with Alex Grinch, who was hired earlier in the week as UCF's defensive coordinator.
"We talked scheme and what he expects from the corner position," Reed said. "We're gonna be aggressive. We'll switch things up and try to throw different things at the QB, different looks. Make it harder for the OC which makes our job easier. He answered the questions that I had. I feel really comfortable about the system."
Reed had an excellent career at Brown, his best season coming in 2023 when he was an All-Ivy League first teamer, leading the conference with five interceptions (in 10 games) to go along with 50 tackles and eight pass breakups. He earned a PFF grade of 86.9 that year.
A team captain in 2024, Reed played in four games then redshirted due to injury. He suffered a broken fifth metatarsal (pinky toe) that he first tried to play through, but after he re-aggravated it he opted to have surgery. He just had his six week post-op appointment and has been running for the past two weeks.
Reed will officially join UCF next summer as he will remain at Brown through his May graduation. Until then, he'll try to catch up as best he can virtually and hopes to attend some spring practices in person during Brown's spring break. 2025 will be his final season of eligibility.
"The coaches are expecting me to come in and compete for a starting corner position," Reed said. "I'll have to prove myself of course. I feel like I can cover pretty well. I'm very physical in the run game. On top of that, I feel I can do a little bit of everything. If they need me inside as a slot corner, I can do that. They need somebody to fill a run gap, blitz the quarterback, I've done that too."
This will be a big portal year for UCF as Frost builds his 2025 roster. Reed is the fifth commitment so far.
"I know we got a few more guys coming in that should be putting pen to paper real soon," Reed said. "We're ready to turn some heads. I'm expecting big things at UCF. I'm ready to get back to the National Championship talk because I think we can do it. I've got a lot of faith in this coaching staff. I haven't even stepped foot on the field with these guys yet, but I know we're going to come out and play ball. I'm just really excited for next season."
