Patrick Reed says playing in the final grouping on Saturday will be just like any other round of golf. (2:03)

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Josh Gregory is America's leading scholar on the subject of Patrick Nathanial Reed, and for good reason. Reed helped his coach write the greatest story in college golf only a short par-4 away from Augusta National, at Augusta State, where Reed carried a mid-major Division I program not only to one national championship, but to two -- in a row.

"It would be the equivalent of Loyola of Chicago winning the basketball title [one] year and going on to win it again," Gregory said by phone Friday night. "That would be an identical story."

Surely Sister Jean would say Amen Corner to that.

Reed, at 9 under, is leading the Masters after two rounds. He is two strokes ahead of Marc Leishman, four ahead of Henrik Stenson. Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are five shots back, and it's worth noting, since McIlroy and Spieth have won a combined seven major championships -- or seven more than Reed has won.

But beware the man who dares to dress in Tiger Woods' favorite Sunday color -- red. Reed has proven to be a red, white and blue rarity -- a Ryder Cup terminator -- and a golfer who talks a big game, plays a bigger game and genuinely believes he's destined to win multiple majors. On a day when swirling winds and dry, fast greens made Augusta National something of an angry arena, Reed shot 66, birdied three consecutive holes on three different occasions and made this tournament his to lose.

And no, Reed doesn't plan on losing it.

"As a coach, you always try to get your players to believe they are twice as good as they are," Gregory said after watching Reed's breakthrough round. "I never had to do that with Patrick. He already believed it."

So much has been said and written about Reed's high-maintenance behavior in college, but maybe not enough about the amazing achievement of carrying a nowhere program to a Hoosiers-like triumph over the NCAA big boys in consecutive years. Reed was kicked off the team at the University of Georgia, where his teammates detested him, and he was nearly voted off the team at Augusta State, where his teammates, you know, detested him.

Gregory no longer talks publicly about these turbulent times, but in 2014 he told ESPN.com that Georgia's coach, Chris Haack, had warned him Reed was a handful. The transfer then made Haack a prophet times 10. Boorish behavior and a series of team violations Gregory wouldn't specify led to Reed's two-event suspension at Augusta State to start the 2009-10 season.

Patrick Reed had nine birdies during his second round Friday, matching the record for second-most birdies in any Masters round in the past 30 years. David Cannon/Getty Images

"Patrick was on his final strike," Gregory said in 2014, "and he knew that. ... Even if he made the Tour at that point, maturitywise he would've gotten eaten up. I told him he was never going to make it if he didn't get things under control."

He did just enough conforming to remain at Augusta State (now known as Augusta University) and to lead the Jaguars to their first national title in 2010 by beating Peter Uihlein and Oklahoma State. Reed returned the following year to beat Harris English and his former school, Georgia, to win the 2011 title and make Augusta State the first school to go back-to-back since the University of Houston in 1985.

"We had roughly a tenth of some of the operating budgets of some of the major schools," Gregory said. "Patrick went 6-0 during those two matches. That was the start of his match-play domination."

Reed ripped out McIlroy's heart at Hazeltine two years ago to give the United States its desperately needed victory over Europe; America's most audacious player had secured his standing as America's most reliable player, too. Though Reed has won five times on Tour, his team-play magic hasn't translated to the individual majors. He placed second at last summer's PGA Championship, his only top-five in 16 major appearances. In his four previous trips to the Masters, Reed twice missed the cut and failed to place better than T-22.