The Time Has Come

Reese brothers hoping to meet on football field for the first time

By Jeff Vorva

There might not be a mathematician alive who could figure out the odds of this happening.

Elmhurst brothers Max and Garrett Reese have never been teammates or opponents during a game on a football field.

When North Texas faces Indiana on Sept. 5 in Bloomington, Indiana, it could happen. Max is a senior tight end for North Texas, and Garrett is a sophomore defensive back for the defending national champions.

“I’ve been looking forward to this happening for a long time,” Garrett said of facing his brother.

But simple math and some outside variables said it shouldn’t have happened.

North Texas has played 1,129 games and Indiana 1,239. The two squads faced each other just twice, once in 2011 and the other time in 2014.

Meanwhile, in the transfer-crazy world of college football, Max was looking for another spot to land after playing for Eastern Michigan and Mississippi.

“I narrowed it down to Memphis and North Texas, and before that, I did not know Indiana was on the schedule,” said Max, a Fenwick grad. “Then I found out it was on the schedule. It was not the deciding factor for me, but I’m glad it’s happening.”

Garrett, on the other hand, almost missed a meeting with the Hoosiers after he and his family took a long trip to visit Michigan State and Eastern Michigan. When he didn’t get an offer from Michigan State, he wasn’t feeling too hot about his recruitment.

Members of his exhausted family were not keen on making a 316-mile trip to Bloomington after the two Michigan stops. But they soldiered on from Ypsilanti to the Indiana campus.

“I was down on myself,” said Garrett, a Nazareth grad. “But I said ‘Let’s go check it out.’ Coach C (Curt Cignetti) was at my school a few weeks before. I wanted to see what they had to say, and the rest was history.”

The trash-talking between the two brothers started a long time ago, but they have great respect for each other. As the older brother, Max made sure life on the football field was never going to be a breeze.

“I never took it easy on him,” Max said of Garrett. “That’s probably why he’s in the position he is in now. When he got into high school, things just naturally felt easier for him because he’s been dealing with me his whole life. I always pushed him to be great and instill that mindset in him.”

Garrett appreciated the tough love, even though at the time it was a tough pill to swallow.

“I was a little bit of a hothead when I was a kid,” Garrett said. “He would always push my buttons. He knew what triggered me and what would get  a reaction out of me.”

Garrett was able to get a taste of the magical national championship season for the Hoosiers.

“It was as perfect as it can get,” he said. “For me, it just felt like a whole movie the whole time. It was high after high after high every week. It was always something new every day.”

And now the new experience of facing his brother kicks off the 2026 season with a bang.

Their parents, Al and Melinda, are looking forward to the showdown, and over the summer, Al was trying to come up with a jersey melding the two schools.

“We win either way,” Al said.

Al said he hopes both sons get playing time in the game and that Max can show the Hoosiers what he can do.

“Indiana didn’t see the fit for Max, which was crazy,” Al said. “When North Texas presented itself, and Indiana was on the schedule, he already had that chip on his shoulder. The way things aligned, it was like divine intervention.”

Max is more than ready. 

“It’s cool, and I’m very excited,” he said. “To do it at the highest level is something that is very exciting.”