Fred Reid (born March 16, 1982) is the

running backs coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

for the

Ottawa Redblacks The Ottawa Redblacks (officially stylized as REDBLACKS) (French: Le Rouge et Noir d'Ottawa) are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Starting ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL). He is a former professional gridiron football

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

who played primarily for the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fie ...

. He was originally signed by the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2005. He played college football at

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

College career

Reid attended Mississippi State University and in four years of college football he totaled 996 rushing yards on 236 rushing attempts with six touchdowns. He also totaled 44 receptions, 349 receiving yards and two touchdowns. When he graduated he finished as the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

's (SEC) all-time leading kick returner. As a kick returner with the Bulldogs, Reid had 61 returns for 1,303 yards. As a senior in 2004, Reid helped Sylvester Croom, the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

head coach in the SEC, win his debut by rushing for 37 yards on 15 carries and one

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

. During his final season which is considered his best at Mississippi State, Reid had 82 rushes, 393 yards and two touchdowns. Against

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, he had a career-high 18 rushes for 72 rushing yards.

Professional career

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Coming out of

, Reid went undrafted in the

2005 NFL Draft The 2005 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 23–24, 2005. The league also he ...

and was signed by the

shortly after the draft. He was released by the Buccaneers on June 28, 2005.

Mississippi MudCats

In the spring of 2007, Reid played for the Mississippi MudCats of the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

After spending 2006 out of football, upon recommendation from

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

Barrin Simpson, Reid was signed by Winnipeg on April 5, 2007. In his first year with the Blue Bombers he played in all 18 regular-season games and rushed for 270 yards on 40 attempts with two touchdowns. Reid got two starts when Charles Roberts was out with injury. In those two starts, Reid ran for 196 yards and two touchdowns. As a kickoff returner, he had 213 yards on nine attempts. He saw playing time in all three of Winnipeg's playoff games including the Grey Cup against

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

. In his second year in Winnipeg, Reid totaled 709 yards on 101 rushing attempts and added three touchdowns. He was named an all-star after the season. After the 2008 season, Reid's contract expired and he became a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

, however he was re-signed on January 30, 2009. He was expected to share time at

with Joe Smith in 2009. However, after Lavarus Giles impressed Blue Bombers management, Smith was released, meaning Reid would end up sharing carries with Giles. On August 21, 2009, Reid set a new Blue Bombers record for rushing in a single game with 260 yards, with the previous record being 249. Reid led the league in rushing during the

2010 CFL season The 2010 CFL season is the 57th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it is the 53rd Canadian Football League season. Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton hosted the 98th Grey Cup on November 28 when the Montreal Alouettes became the ...

with 1,396 yards. After spending five seasons with the Blue Bombers, he was released on February 27, 2012.

Statistics

Coaching career

Toronto Argonauts

On February 6, 2020, it was announced that Reid had joined the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

as the team's running backs coach. While the

2020 CFL season The 2020 CFL season would have been the 67th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it would have been the 63rd season of the Canadian Football League. It was originally scheduled to begin on June 11; on April 7, the start of the ...

was cancelled, Reid continued as a coach for the Argonauts in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

. He was not retained by the Argonauts following the season.

Ottawa Redblacks

On March 11, 2022, it was announced that Reid had joined the

as the team's

. The move reunited him with his former Winnipeg

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Paul LaPolice Paul LaPolice (born June 12, 1970) is a gridiron football coach who was most recently the head coach for the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is a two-time Grey Cup champion as an assistant coach, most recently in 201 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Fred 1982 births Living people African-American players of Canadian football American football running backs American players of Canadian football Canadian football running backs Mississippi MudCats players Mississippi State Bulldogs football players Players of American football from Tampa, Florida Players of Canadian football from Tampa, Florida Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Winnipeg Blue Bombers players Toronto Argonauts coaches Ottawa Redblacks coaches 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people