Reed Blankenship Brother: Is Reed Blankenship Related To Rodrigo Blankenship?

Blankenship was born on March 2, 1999, in Athens, Alabama, and grew up there. He played football and basketball at West Limestone High School. In football, he was an all-state, all-region, all-county, and all-area selection, and he was named Player of the Year in 2016. He was the team’s captain for two seasons and finished his career with 3,192 rushing yards, 1,004 receiving yards, 1,056 passing yards, and 46 total touchdowns.

image credit; Sportslulu

After graduating from high school, Blankenship received scholarship offers from Middle Tennessee, Alabama A&M, Marist, Minnesota, Southern Miss, Georgia State, Tulane, Troy, Samford, Arkansas State, Western Carolina, Arkansas Tech, Mercer, UT Martin, Central Arkansas.

Blankenship accepted Middle Tennessee’s offer and appeared in 13 games as a true freshman, nine of which he started (2017). He finished fourth on the team with 68 tackles and added a sack and two interceptions, earning honorable mention all-conference and C-USA honors. All-Freshman honors.

Blankenship made a team-leading and career-high 107 tackles as a sophomore in 2018, starting 12. His four interceptions ranked 16th in the country. On October 27, he had a sack, 17 tackles, three for loss, and returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown against Old Dominion, earning him the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week award as well as conference defensive player of the week honors.

His interception return was ranked second on ESPN’s list of the top plays of the day. Blankenship was named first-team all-conference at the conclusion of the season.