UW’s Reece not a typical receiver

Washington quarterback Carl Bonnell remembers the first time he saw his new Huskies teammate, receiver Marcel Reece.

“I thought he was like a linebacker or something,” Bonnell said.

That’s easy to understand. Reece stands 6-foot-3 and weighs in at something around 240 pounds.

“I don’t know my exact weight,” he said. “But with all the work I’m putting in in camp and the nutrition I’m doing right now, I’ll be OK.”

Reece says he weighed 195 pounds as a high school senior and topped out at about 252 pounds in junior college. He figures his ideal playing weight is about 225.

“(Size) isn’t an issue; the issue is performance,” UW coach Tyrone Willingham said. “If he was 290 but can (run fast) and catch every pass thrown to him, would you change him? It’s a pretty nice advantage. Sometimes he’s going to be playing against a 190-pound cornerback.”

Reece doesn’t appear fat or soft. Bonnell got it right: He looks like a linebacker.

“I wouldn’t consider myself sloppy,” Reece said. “It’s just me. My weight fluctuates up or down. I still work the same – give or take a little quickness – but the speed has always been there.”

Reece says he ran back-to-back 4.4-second 40-yard dashes at a JC recruiting combine.