PASADENA, Calif. -- Ed Reed admits that sometimes he's possessed.

Situation: Miami needs its usual dose of locker-room motivation from Reed, a senior safety, before a big game. What follows, sometimes, is a 23-year-old football savant speaking in tongues.

Edward Reed figures to draw a lot of attention in the NFL Draft.(AP)

"Right before I speak, I go blank," Reed said. "I just start saying stuff."

Neither Reed nor any Miami teammates provided any behind-the-scenes dialogue this week as the No. 1 Hurricanes prepared to meet Nebraska in Thursday's Rose Bowl. But whatever Reed says, it's powerful.

At halftime of the Troy State game Nov. 6, Miami had sleepwalked its way to a 17-7 lead. Reed came into the Orange Bowl locker room, blistered some paint and then returned a third-quarter interception for a touchdown to back up his words. At halftime of the showdown at Florida State, he hollered at this teammates -- half out of emotion and half out of pain caused by a dislocated shoulder.

Reed then intercepted two second-half passes in a 49-27 victory.

"If I'm going to talk about it," Reed said, "I've got to be about it."

At first glance, Reed's gum-flapping makes him the latest in a long line of Miami trash-talkers. His dreadlock/braid look makes him look gangster. His background says otherwise.

Reed is well-spoken, not harsh-spoken. The son of a shipyard welder is on track to graduate with a liberal arts degree in the spring. Despite the lure of the NFL, he stayed at Miami after his junior year just to pursue a national championship.

"It was not tough at all," Reed said. "I made my decision well before the end of (last) season. I always wanted to play four years of college ball. This year, I had extra incentive. I felt like we could win a national championship. I had no regrets coming into the season. I didn't even want to know my draft position."

It doesn't matter now. Reed figures to be a high draft choice after leading the country in interceptions (nine). More than that, he has those intangible leadership qualities.

"He says whatever comes to his mind," said teammate Phillip Buchanon of Reed's locker-room tirades. "Of course he's a leader, and everybody is going to listen. Whenever he feels this team is dragging, that's when he does it."

Reed says the episodes are nothing new.

"I think it started a long time ago, well before me," Reed said. "It had to. Some of the old guys come back, and they'd be in the locker room before I speak. You could see it in their eyes. They're ready to go out there and play. Guys like Lamar Thomas, Bennie Blades and Michael Barrow."

That Reed, a two-time All-American, didn't win one of the major defensive awards amazes his teammates. Oklahoma safety Roy Williams won the Jim Thorpe Award given to the nation's best defensive back. Reed failed to win both the Bednarik and Nagurski awards, each given to the nation's best defender.

His lone reward for being the best player on the nation's best defense is defensive player of the year from the Football News.

"I was kind of shocked, really," Buchanon said.

Part of the problem is that in Miami's secondary, it's hard to stand out. Every player is special. Buchanon, the Big East special teams player of the year, is the fastest, running a 4.2 40 and mulling an early departure for the NFL. Strong safety James Lewis leads the secondary in tackles (59). Corner Mike Rumph might be a better athlete, with a vertical leap that is two inches higher than Reed's.

"On our team, it doesn't matter," Miami defensive coordinator Randy Shannon said. "Every player in that secondary can play every position. Safeties can play corner and corners can play safety."

But it is Reed's leadership that inspires the rest of the Hurricanes. The Miami defense is first in scoring (9.4 points), shutouts (three) and interceptions (27). Reed's 21 career interceptions are a school record.

"Our personality is not letting you score," Reed said. "We go out there saying we're going to dominate this series. We don't want you to get past the 50-yard line. We don't want you to score at all. If you score, it's like sticking a knife in us."

The native of St. Rose, La., fell in love with Miami within hours of his recruiting visit. It might have had something to do with seeing what his future might be. When Reed was about 12 or 13 years old, his father, Ed Sr., drove him past his New Orleans-area shipyard.

"This," said Ed Sr. who worked 12-hour shifts, "is what you don't want to do."

"As a kid you might brush it to the side," Ed Jr. said, "but that's one thing I do remember my dad saying to me. I think it helped."

Despite being a team captain, Reed doesn't come out of the locker room for the coin flip. It is part superstition and part inspiration. The one time Reed did come out early as an underclassmen, he had a bad game.

Plus, the team's entrance onto the field at the Orange Bowl is half Vegas as players run through clouds of fake fog.

"There's just something about me running out of the tunnel and running out in the smoke," Reed said.

Reed's excitable boy routine has its dangers. He admits that his interception return for a touchdown against Boston College on Nov. 10 was foolish. Defensive lineman Matt Walters had intercepted a pass by Eagles quarterback Brian St. Pierre with 40 seconds remaining.

Before Walters could think, Reed came up from behind screaming for the ball.

"I was thinking, 'Just run out of bounds,'" Walters said. "Ed kind of grabbed onto the ball and yelled for it. I didn't know if he was going to run for a touchdown or not."

Reed did just that, even if it wasn't the wisest move. A fumble could have given Boston College, trailing 12-7, another chance.

"I got caught up in the game," Reed said sheepishly.

Spoken, it would seem, like a man possessed.