Iowa State grad transfer linebacker Colby Reeder carries ‘elite process’ onto the field

AMES — Iowa State cornerback T.J. Tampa twisted his body to tip the pass.

The football fluttered, slowly descending from the air as Cyclone linebacker Colby Reeder watched and reacted. The 25-year-old graduate transfer from Delaware made a perfect catch and started to run, hoping to reach the end zone, but happy to merely make a big play in the Cyclones’ 10-7 win last Saturday at Iowa that ended a six-game losing streak in the series.

“Tampa made an amazing play on the ball,” said Reeder, who hopes to continue to collect turnovers during Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against Ohio at Jack Trice Stadium and beyond. “You watch the replay, he did full extension, hit it up in the air, and it bounced to me. At that point, that’s a gift that he basically wrapped up and tossed to me, so you’ve just got to secure it and try to take it to the house. Got to get there next time, though.”

Reeder — whose father, Dan, played two seasons in the NFL and brother, Troy, is currently a linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams — talks about the game in the same manner he plays it. With verve, joy and intensity.

The Delaware native and MBA holder is majoring in entrepreneurship and innovation at ISU and that’s also fitting, given how his versatility and curiosity has helped the Cyclones make the linebacker corps strong again despite the graduations of Mike Rose and Jake Hummel.

“He has an elite process to himself,” said ISU head coach Matt Campbell, whose team is 2-0 to start the season for the first time since 2012. “I think we saw that in winter workouts. Man, he was a star in our workouts. And then you saw spring practice and how he handled (that) and fall camp. So to me, what we’re seeing now is what his own process has led him to be, but what he did Saturday was fantastic. That was as good a performance that we’ve seen in terms of what we asked him to do — not just play Sam linebacker; he was playing Mike, he was playing Will, he was playing Sam (and) at times he played defensive end.”

But Reeder wasn’t the only Cyclone linebacker helping to produce takeaways. All three starters sparked one. Senior Gerry Vaughn’s strip-sack turned into a fumble recovered by Will McDonald. It was the first turnover ISU had forced against the Hawkeyes since 2015.

Sixth-year senior linebacker O’Rien Vance forced a fumble at the goal line that Kendall Jackson recovered late in the third quarter that preceded the Cyclones’ nearly 12-minute game-winning touchdown drive.

“They’ve accepted (me) and they’re some of my best friends on the team,” Reeder said of Vance and Vaughn. “They’re awesome and they had awesome games this past week, too. They played their butts off the entire game, so I think we’re finding good chemistry, starting to get our feet under us. Our communication is getting better, so it’s been awesome working with them.”

That work continues Saturday against the Bobcats. Then it’s time to turn the page to Big 12 season and facing last year's champion, Baylor, at home. It’s a transition Reeder has long looked forward to making — and why he left his lifelong home in “the First State” to become a Cyclone.

“I came here because I believed in it and I think our coaches believed in it,” said Reeder, who was named co-Big 12 Newcomer of the Week after the Iowa win. “But it is nice to get some validation. Like, you can work hard and practice hard, but if you don’t perform, then, you know — so it’s nice to have some success on the field.”

That’s true both personally and collectively.

“I feel like this is what he needed,” said Tampa, whose skillful tip gave Reeder ISU’s first interception in the Cy-Hawk game since 2014. “We all love him. We’re all there, so he’s feeding off of that. It’s perfect.”

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