'A little sad, a little hurt and a bunch of questions': Players support Ed Reed after B-CU split

UPDATE: Since this article, Bethune-Cookman athletic director Reggie Theus still has not responded to multiple requests for an interview by The News-Journal but has talked to HBCU Gameday.

DAYTONA BEACH — Devin Harrell’s first thought was to leave Bethune-Cookman.

He was sitting in a room packed with the football team and nearly 30 recruits and their families last Saturday as Ed Reed informed them that he wouldn't be their coach after all. The university had called off an agreement in principle for Reed to be its head football coach.

Stunned, the majority of the players sided with Reed instantly.

“I was honestly ready to leave this school,” Harrell, a sophomore linebacker, said. “But it’s like, you can’t leave because the transfer portal just closed for a couple months, so everybody felt stuck. Then it’s like, ‘How are we going to get recruits now?’ It’s an important time for recruiting. Signing day is next Wednesday. It’s like, 'How can you fire a coach right before we’re about to get more recruits?'

Back story:Ed Reed issues apology after releasing scathing videos directed at Bethune-Cookman

Opinion:The intriguing FAMU and Ed Reed, Bethune-Cookman rivalry is now a 'what if'

'He actually let us down': Bethune-Cookman AD defends university after split with Ed Reed

Football recruiting: Who are the top unsigned players heading into national signing day?

“I just felt like the administration thought off emotions and they wasn’t thinking logically. I felt like they ain’t really care about us at all.”

"There was really a lot of anger," freshman running back Branden McDonald added. "People wanted to just figure out why ... We just wanted to come together as a team and find out a way to get him back. That was our goal. That is our goal currently. We’re still fighting to get him back."

Ed Reed’s arrival created buzz

Harrell recalled the feeling when Theus summoned the football team for a Zoom meeting last month. On the call, he introduced Reed as its new coach.

“I screamed and put myself on mute on the Zoom call and said, ‘I’m going to the NFL now'!” Harrell said. “... After two straight 2-9 seasons, people were in the (transfer) portal and not as motivated. I could just see, when they hired Ed Reed and Ed Reed got on the camera, everybody just changed. They got motivated just by seeing Ed Reed was our coach.”

Reed arrived in Daytona Beach and immediately hit the recruiting trail.

He also attempted to bond with his new team. He bought dinners. He took his players to Dave & Buster’s. They gathered together to watch the National Championship between Georgia and Texas Christian. They didn’t do football workouts, but Reed hosted meetings, organized campus cleanups and other team-building activities.

“The last couple of weeks, it was just like he was our regular coach,” McDonald said. “We talked with him and had one-on-ones with him. He’s a great guy. He’s a really nice role model, very inspirational. He was an uplifting person as a coach, and that was only from two-to-three weeks.”

Ed Reed’s comments triggered controversy

On Jan. 15, Reed, still without an official contract, took to Instagram Live while riding around on a golf cart during a team cleanup. In a profanity-laced rant, he complained about the conditions of Bethune-Cookman’s facilities and criticized leadership at HBCUs, saying their administrators have “broken mentalities.” He issued an apology the next day.

“I laughed,” Harrell said. “I was like, ‘It’s about time somebody said it.’ I come from a very honest, blunt family. It’s the truth, so you can’t be mad at the truth. You could say he’s bashing the school, but he’s not bashing the school. He’s saying we need help and resources.

“He might’ve went about it the wrong way, but clearly, you can see he went about it the right way because now we’re getting the attention we need.”

In the aftermath of the split last weekend, students staged a protest on campus Monday and have spoken publicly about issues including mold in dorms, no hot water or air conditioning and other problems that they claim go without attention from the school’s administration. While Reed's dismissal wasn't the only reason for the demonstration, students said that it was certainly a catalyst.

Harrell and McDonald said the football team has encountered its own lack of resources and players, too, took part in the protest. The Wildcats do not have locker rooms or a practice field on campus. Players have also claimed that they have dealt with mold and had to share equipment last season.

“If you can find footage of us warming up, some dudes didn’t have helmets,” Harrell said. “They were all trying to find the right sizes for somebody. I sacrificed and put on a medium helmet just so I could have a helmet. I wear a large helmet. It was really unorganized, but it was unorganized because we really don’t have the resources to be organized.”

Harrell appeared in five games in 2022. During one of the games he sat out, he had to give his game pants to a teammate because the Wildcats ran out of a certain size.

Bringing in a high-profile candidate like Reed was viewed as a potential remedy to some of those problems by Bethune-Cookman’s administration.

That all changed last week.

Since Ed Reed’s departure

McDonald started last Saturday like most mornings. He rolled over in bed and checked his phone.

His reaction: “Whoa.”

He saw Reed’s statement, put out through his foundation on social media, announcing that his time at B-CU was over.

“After weeks of negotiations, I’ve been informed that the university won’t be ratifying my contract and won’t make good on the agreement we had in principle, which had provisions and resources best needed to support the student-athletes,” the statement read.

McDonald got up and headed toward the athletic training center. Reed had texted the players Friday night, calling a team meeting for Saturday morning.

Once everyone huddled in the room, Reed gave an impassioned speech about his ouster and aired it on Instagram Live.

“I was really hurt,” McDonald said. “I kind of figured what the reason was. I took an educated guess because I knew how he expressed himself and the way he exposed the school on certain things. But it was just kind of like, ‘Man.’

"A little sad, a little hurt and a bunch of questions.”

The players drew up a petition pushing for Reed’s reinstatement and posted it on social media Saturday. As of Tuesday, they had not gotten a reply from the university about the petition, McDonald said.

The Wildcats have continued campaigning for Reed’s return on social media and in interviews.

“Honestly, I want coach Ed Reed back because I saw the change he was going to bring,” Harrell said. “But even if they don’t bring him back, they have to acknowledge the problems we have and maybe actually fix them. That’s really our biggest thing …

“Every HBCU graduate will tell you, this HBCU experience itself, you really appreciate it. I’m from Tallahassee, and I went to a predominantly white middle school and high school. So, just experiencing Black culture in a college setting is really great.

“We want to still experience that, but we want to experience it under better conditions. And all HBCUs go through it. That’s the problem. It’s been a good experience. I like it. I like it a lot, actually. But it still (could benefit from) some change.”

Theus has stayed mostly silent since Reed’s hiring and has given only one interview, published Wednesday by HBCU Gameday. On the video call, Theus was asked if there’s any chance of restoring Reed to the coaching role. His answer:

“No shot.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Bethune-Cookman players side with Ed Reed after school splits with coach