Reginald Lewis Ball (born October 6, 1984) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He was originally signed by the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

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 2007. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

Early years

Ball played his high school football at Stephenson High School in

Stone Mountain, Georgia Stone Mountain is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 6,703 according to the 2020 US Census. Stone Mountain is in the eastern part of DeKalb County and is a suburb of Atlanta that encompasses nearly 1.7 square mil ...

. As a senior, he passed for over 2,000 yards with 19

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 Ameri ...

s and just two

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

s. He was named to the Super Southern 100 and Top 50 in Georgia by the

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

. Also, he was rated the number 133 player in Georgia by BorderWars.com and ranked among the nation's top 15 all-purpose quarterbacks by

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

College career

Ball was the first

true freshman Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

to start at

for Georgia Tech since Stu Rogers in 1980. Ball's first start was in the Yellow Jackets' opening game against

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

in 2003. Since then, he missed just one game and amassed 8,128 passing yards, 57 touchdown passes and 9,579 total yards of offense in his career, but also threw 55 interceptions. Ball's passing yards total is third on Georgia Tech's career list, behind Joe Hamilton and Shawn Jones, and his touchdown pass and total offense totals are second behind Hamilton. Ball accumulated 11 rushing

s and also rushed for 1,451 yards in his career, good for 18th on the Yellow Jacket leaderboard and second among Tech quarterbacks in history (Hamilton). He wore jersey number 1. During his career, Ball was named ACC Rookie of the Year in 2003 and was named the MVP of the

Champs Sports Bowl The Pop-Tarts Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played in Orlando, Florida, at Camping World Stadium. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group which also organizes the Citrus Bowl and the Florida Classic ...

in 2004. He compiled a record of 29-20 as the starting quarterback for the Yellow Jackets. Ball, whose athleticism was well noted as CouchScout.com listed him at 4.46 in the 40-yard dash, led Georgia Tech to three 7-win seasons in a row. He capped off his career with a 9-5 mark in 2006 that included a #25 ranking nationally (heading into the Toyota Gator Bowl) and an ACC Coastal Division Championship. In 2005, Georgia Tech was trailing UGA 7-14 with 1st & 10 at the UGA 11. Ball threw an interception that helped secure a victory for the Bulldogs. Thus stretching the streak to five games over their in state rivals. Ball started his senior season for the Yellow Jackets by leading the team to a sterling 9-2 record, but his collegiate career ended on a negative note on December 2, 2006, with a 9-6 loss in the ACC Championship Game to Wake Forest, just one week after Ball's Georgia Tech team lost to in-state rival UGA for a sixth straight year. He completed less than 30% (15-51) of his passes in these last two games, threw four interceptions, and gave up a crucial

fumble A fumble in gridiron football occurs when a player who has possession and control of the ball loses it before being downed (tackled), scoring, or going out of bounds. By rule, it is any act other than passing, kicking, punting, or successful ...

in the loss to Georgia. Although Georgia Tech earned a spot to play West Virginia in the Gator Bowl that year, Ball's controversial career abruptly ended when he was named academically ineligible, and backup quarterback Taylor Bennett was named the starter. He left Georgia Tech after this season having completed only 44% of his passes, the worst mark of his four-year career, and not receiving an academic degree.

Legacy

Ball's college career will forever be marred with inconsistency. The teams he led "played to the level of the opponent," producing several impressive upsets while losing "easier" games. Although he won several big games for the Jackets including two wins against ranked

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

teams and a win against #3

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

on the road in 2005, Ball-led Yellow Jacket teams were 0-4 against the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech's primary rival. Ball's play in these games (including, in 2004, a drive-ending intentional incomplete pass out of bounds on 4th down and earning him the nickname "5th Down Reggie") will always be in question to Georgia Tech fans. He finished his career by losing to UGA, losing the ACC Championship game to Wake Forest, and being declared academically ineligible for the 2007 Gator Bowl, which would have been his final game. College football writer Pete Fiutak, contributor to the website Collegefootballnews.com, challenged readers to name a more ineffective four-year college football starter than Ball. Brett Jensen compared his career to that of the

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) s ...

Charlie Whitehurst Charles David Whitehurst Jr. (born August 6, 1982), is a former American football quarterback who played college football at Clemson Tigers football, Clemson, and was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the third round (81st overall) of the 2006 ...

; both had impressive freshman seasons, but they were unable to live up to the expectations placed upon them.

Statistics

Professional career

Detroit Lions

At the

NFL Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Footba ...

, Ball tried out as a wide receiver, attempting to follow former college quarterbacks

Antwaan Randle El Antwaan Randle El (; born August 17, 1979) is an American football coach and former player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He is currently the wide receivers coach for the Detroit Lions of the Nati ...

and

Reggie McNeal Reginald Parrish McNeal (born September 20, 1983) is a former professional American football player. He played five seasons in the Canadian Football League. He played college football at Texas A&M University. High school career McNeal attended ...

. He ran a 4.8 second 40-yard dash, and had somewhat inconsistent pass coverage. Ball was not selected during the 2007 NFL Draft, but was signed by the

, auditioning for a role as a wide receiver/kick returner. He did not make the team. On December 5, he was re-signed to the

practice squad In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

when

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

LaMarcus Hicks was placed on injured reserve and wide receiver

Brandon Middleton Brandon Anthony Middleton (born January 2, 1981) is a former American football wide receiver and currently is the offensive coordinator at Royal High School in Brookshire, Texas. Middleton was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free ...

was promoted to the active roster. On July 27, 2008, he was placed on injured reserve. Ball was released by the Lions on March 18, 2009.DetroitLions.com

Indoor Football League

Ball signed to play for the now-defunct Bricktown Brawlers of the

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams am ...

in 2011.

References

External links

Georgia Tech profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Reggie 1984 births Living people American football quarterbacks American football wide receivers Detroit Lions players Bricktown Brawlers players Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football players People from Stone Mountain, Georgia Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) Sportspeople from DeKalb County, Georgia