Husky Roster Review: Curley Plays it Straight at UW, Waiting His Turn

Curley Reed III was a can't-miss cornerback from Louisiana, a high school sophomore way ahead of his time in 2020, a big reason why his Lake Charles College Prep football team went 10-1 and advanced to the 3A state semifinals.

Yet just as the world was emerging from the COVID pandemic the following season, Reed suffered a debilitating knee injury that made him miss all except the opener.

The University of Washington defensive back has been battling to reclaim his exalted football status ever since.

"Went to that dark place and slayed a couple of dragons," Reed posted on social media back then. "Now I'm comfortable with being uncomfortable."

In this age of college players impatient with their football development and constantly on the move, the 6-foot-1, 198-pound redshirt freshman presses on in Seattle, entering his second season with the Huskies and looking for his first game time.

Curley, which is his birth name, spent much of the recent UW spring football practice shuttling between the second and third units, showing Jedd Fisch's new coaching staff what he's capable of doing. The Southerner's only real lament since moving to his new surroundings is finding a lack of "seasoned" food.

"I've learned so much and I just think I've been getting better day by day," he said at the Sugar Bowl , arriving back in his home state Louisiana five months ago with the Huskies "Whenever the opportunity comes, it comes."

This is one in a series of articles -- going from 0 to 99 on the Husky roster -- examining what each scholarship player and leading walk-on did this past spring and what to expect from them going forward.

Reed hails from Lake Charles, a city of 85,000 on the Texas-Louisiana state border, a tough-minded city filled with oil refineries and petrochemical plants, often a target of violent hurricanes rushing in from the Gulf of Mexico.

While grading out as a 4-star recruit, he entertained scholarship offers from LSU, Miami, Florida State, Auburn, Oregon, USC, Purdue, Nebraska, Mississippi State, TCU and Alcorn before settling on the Huskies.

He made a connection with the UW because his Lake Charles football coach Erick Franklin was friends growing up with then-Husky defensive-backs coach Julius "Juice" Brown, now an analyst for TCU.

"I always wanted to really just go far away for college. and experience something new," Reed said with a soft Southern drawl. "Like me going to go to the West Coast, I think that was the best thing for me. me as a person, seeing new things."

Reed came to the UW as one of three touted cornerbacks in his class, joined by Caleb Presley from Seattle and Leroy Bryant from Fairfield, California. Each player redshirted in 2023, though Bryant managed to do this even after playing in seven games, which included the three postseason outings that didn't count against preserving his eligibility.

Even with the Husky coaching change, all three corners seem willing to stay and play in Montlake and become cornerbacks to count on someday. Now if Reed can only find some food that reminds him of home, maybe some place with dragons on the menu.

CURLEY REED III FILE

What he's done: Reed didn't appear in a game during his freshman season, but he often was in uniform, notably when the Huskies faced Texas in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, 205 miles from his hometown. In the recent spring game, he got tested a few times and gave up a 6-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah Hunter in the back of the end zone, on a Demond Williams Jr. throw that was just over his outstretched hands.

Starter or not: Reed is still a ways away from becoming a UW first-teamer, likely playing behind veteran corners Ephesians Prysock, Elijah Jackson and Thaddeus Dixon this coming season. If he can stick with it in Montlake, he should be rewarded some day.

For the latest UW football and basketball news,