Four years.
That's all Jordan Reed needed to learn football, adapt to it and ride it to a college scholarship.
Reed, now a senior at New London High in New London, Conn., didn't start playing football until his freshman year of high school.
Before that?
"I used to play baseball," Reed said.
Reed had been playing baseball since age 10 and played pitcher, shortstop and third base. He stopped when he got into high school and made the transition to football, while many of his fellow recruits in the same class had been playing for half their lives.
"When I was a freshman, I fell in love with it (football)," he said. "My brother plays football, and my dad used to play football."
Fast-forward to the present where Reed is a national prospect - four years removed from a baseball-turned-football freshman.
The dual-threat quarterback was listed by Rivals.com as a four-star prospect - one of the nation's top 300 players. He's ranked 11th at his position and was also rated as a possible All-American candidate.
Reed was constantly surrounded by hype but he "never thought anything of it."
He verbally committed to UF in August and said that nothing would change his mind.
"I felt real comfortable when I went up there (UF)," he said. "Everything was good, and everybody was nice to me. I got some people I know up there, already."
New London coach Jack Cochran believed Reed would flourish as a Gator.
"For what he can do," Cochran said, "the offense fits him perfect."
Reed will hope to find success in an offensively geared system that has paid dividends for Tim Tebow.
As a quarterback who can take it and run with his 4.5-second 40-yard dash time, Reed - 6-foot-3, 235 pounds - seems to fit the Tebow mold.
Relax. Reed doesn't have to be hailed as the next Tebow. He wouldn't dream of it.
"I don't want to play like anybody," Reed said. "I want to play like myself."
