Honors & Awards
» Academic All-Big Ten (2022, 2023)
» Nebraska Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll (Fall 2021, 2022; Spring 2023)
» Brook Berringer Citizenship Team (2023)
» Tom Osborne Citizenship Team (2023)
2023 (Redshirt)
Marques Buford Jr. missed the first eight games of the 2023 season while continuing to rehab a season-ending injury from the 2022 season. He returned to play in each of the final four games with a pair of starts. Buford totaled 18 tackles in his four games and set career highs with 3.0 tackles for loss and 1.0 sack. By playing in only four games, Buford was able to use his redshirt season.
Buford made his 2023 debut at Michigan State and recorded a pair of solo tackles. Buford started the next week against Maryland and had five tackles with a career-high 1.5 tackles for loss, including an 11-yard sack for his first career sack. Buford started again at Wisconsin and finished with a career-high 10 tackles while tying his career high with 1.5 TFLs for the second straight week. He finished the season with one solo tackle against Iowa, when Nebraska limited the Hawkeyes to 94 passing yards.
2022 (Sophomore)
Buford 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. He was Nebraska's co-Defensive Back of the Year.
Buford had a then-career-high seven tackles in his first start against Northwestern, including his first career TFL. He also forced a fumble that led to a Husker touchdown. Against North Dakota, Buford recorded five tackles, a TFL and a pass breakup in the end zone.
Buford posted his first two career interceptions against Georgia Southern and added five tackles. Against No. 6 Oklahoma, Buford totaled seven tackles. He made four tackles against Indiana and six tackles at Rutgers. Buford recorded five tackles at Purdue before making seven stops 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 before suffering his season-ending injury on the opening series against Wisconsin the next week.
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. Buford has volunteered with the Nebraska Football Road Race, local Thanksgiving hospital visits and Nebraska’s Day of Service.