Honors & Awards
» Academic All-Big Ten (2022)
» Nebraska Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll (Fall 2021, 2022)
» Tom Osborne Citizenship Team (2023)
2022 (Sophomore)
Marques Buford Jr. started the first 11 games at safety in 2022 before suffering a season-ending injury against Wisconsin. Buford finished the year with 59 tackles and had three pass breakups, two interceptions and a forced fumble.
Buford had a then-career-high seven tackles in his first start against Northwestern, adding a half tackle for loss for his first career TFL. He also forced a fumble which was recovered by Nebraska and led to a Husker touchdown. Against North Dakota, Buford recorded five tackles, a TFL and a pass breakup in the end zone on a 3rd-and-goal play. Buford posted his first two career interceptions against Georgia Southern and added five tackles. Against No. 6 Oklahoma, Buford totaled seven tackles. Against Indiana, Buford had four tackles. At Rutgers, he totaled six tackles. Buford made five tackles at Purdue. He tied his career high for the third time with seven tackles against No. 17 Illinois, including a one-yard tackle for loss. Buford had a career-high eight tackles against Minnesota with a pass breakup. He had another breakup and recorded five tackles at No. 3 Michigan. Buford was injured on the first series of the game against Wisconsin and missed the rest of the season.
2021 (Freshman)
Buford played in every game in his first season on campus. He was a regular on Nebraska’s special teams coverage units and totaled three tackles. After seeing action on special teams as one of two true freshmen to play in the season opener, Buford made his defensive debut against Fordham, and he also saw action in the secondary against Buffalo.
Buford made his first career tackle on punt coverage at No. 3 Oklahoma. He also had a tackle on punt coverage against No. 9 Michigan that resulted in minus-five-yard return. Buford added another tackle on punt coverage against Purdue.
Before Nebraska (Trinity Christian HS/St. Thomas More [Conn.] Prep)
Buford spent the fall 2020 semester at St. Thomas More Prep School in Connecticut, where he played a limited schedule of six games due to the pandemic. Buford was the nation’s top-ranked prep school recruit, marking the second straight year the Huskers signed the No. 1 prep school recruit from St. Thomas More Prep after Alante Brown inked with NU in December of 2019. Buford enrolled at Nebraska in January.
Buford spent the first two seasons of his high school career at Bolingbrook High School in Chicago and his final two seasons at Trinity Christian High School in Texas. Buford recorded more than 90 tackles with five interceptions in his two seasons at Trinity Christian, which both culminated with state championships. As a senior in 2019, Buford made 40 tackles and intercepted three passes, in addition to totaling 412 receiving yards and seven touchdowns, according to MaxPreps. He was an all-district and all-state performer in each of his two seasons at Trinity Christian. Buford started for Bolingbrook as a freshman wide receiver before becoming a two-way player as a sophomore.
The nation’s top-rated prep school recruit, Buford chose Nebraska over Cal, Iowa, Ole Miss, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M and Washington State. Buford's coach at St. Thomas More Prep was Jason Manson, who was a college teammate of Nebraska defensive coordinator Erik Chinander at Iowa.
Personal
Marques was born on March 18, 2002, and he is the son of Marques Buford Sr. and Roslin Blasingame-Buford. Marques is majoring in child, youth and family studies.