In today’s world of college recruiting, so much emphasis is placed on how many stars a prospect has and if they’re in the Top-100 of whichever website’s player rankings. Thankfully, coaches like Baylor’s Matt Rhule ignore these subjective evaluations, and instead, trust their own ability to find and develop college stars and NFL Draft picks.

It is that strategy that led Rhule’s Temple teams to two 10-win seasons and got 0-star recruit Haason Reddick taken 13th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft.

The latest unheralded gem Rhule and his staff may have uncovered is 2019 cornerback Markel Reed out of Temple High School in Temple, Texas. Baylor was the first Division I school to offer Reed a scholarship. For now, the 6-foot-1, 166-pound Reed cannot be found in any website’s recruiting rankings.

However, even if he felt slighted or overlooked, it was not stars or All-American games that drove Reed to work toward a scholarship.

“It was my dream to be able to get a scholarship and make my mom proud,” Reed said. “We would struggle week in and week out, and that was just my motivation, that was my fuel to just get better and better day-by-day”

Reed’s mother, Kristi Milligan, raised him by herself, and Reed said she’s always done everything she could for him.

Last season, as a sophomore, Reed played sparingly as a reserve on a Temple team that made the state championship game. He realized that if he wanted to fulfill his dream to give back to his mom, he had to work and seize his opportunity.

“After the state game I knew my time was coming fast,” Reed said. “So me and the football team would constantly go to the field every weekend and work out.”

When Baylor’s coaches made the 30-minute drive south and attended a Temple spring practice, Reed caught their eye. Baylor invited him to attend their camp in the summer, where Reed said they continued to show him love. Reed was a guest at four of Baylor’s home games this season and really enjoyed his experiences.

“I love the feeling of college football,” Reed said. “Just being in pregame with them, so many loyal fans and everything. It’s like a big family that will never break.”

Finally, on Nov. 3, Baylor offered Reed his first scholarship.

Extremely blessed to say that I received my first D-1 offer from Baylor ! @BUFootball pic.twitter.com/E1MxGSG8xF

— KEL1️⃣8️⃣ (@_markelreed) November 3, 2017

According to MaxPreps, Reed has 22 tackles, one interception and eight passes deflected this season for a Temple team in pursuit of another state title. Reed said that his best qualities as a player are his belief in himself and ability to frustrate opposing receivers.

“I’m a very confident corner,” Reed said. “I like to get into the opponent’s head. I try to model myself after Josh Norman and Jalen Ramsey. They both play with no hesitation and have all the confidence in the world.”

As a junior, Reed still has plenty of time to grow into an imposing corner and further develop his skills. Without a doubt, other schools will start to take notice of his potential, but Reed doesn’t really have any preconceived notions about his recruiting process.

“I’m just trying to make it for my mom and see what school is the best fit for me,” Reed said.

When asked about Baylor, Reed added the Bears may have a slight advantage.

“Well it’s always great to remember the first school that noticed you before others did,” Reed said.

Another Baylor advantage may come from the developing pipeline between Waco and Temple. Reed’s 2019 classmate, defensive end TJ Franklin, committed to Baylor a few weeks ago, and Baylor freshman linebacker Ashton Logan was a defensive leader on Temple’s state runner-up team last year.

Proud to say that I will be verbally committing to THE Baylor University 🐻🐻#sicembears @CoachE_BU @evancooper2 pic.twitter.com/4JrdTmByBG

— Tj Franklin (@Tf24Tj) October 28, 2017

“Ashton has kept in contact with me, as a matter of fact, we were talking earlier,” Reed said. “Temple Wildcats really deserve it, man, with the great coaching staff that we have, working us hard, making us the players we are now. We have a lot of talent here and some guys that deserve more interest than they get, but we just take it step-by-step and become better young men day-by-day.”

Baylor fans will eagerly wait to see how the school’s relationship with Reed, other underappreciated talents and the Temple Wildcats continues to grow.