Josh Reynolds earns spot as key wide receiver
10/9/2015 12:50:00 PM | Football
Most college football fans are familiar with the 1993 movie “Rudy” and its story of an undersized high school player who earns a spot on the Notre Dame “scout team” as a walk-on and, through his hard work, finally makes the field for the Irish in a big game.
The Sam Houston football team has its own “Rudy” in Josh Reynolds who has worked his from up from serving as a team manager and, later a member of the Bearkats' “scout team” to a reserve wide receiver.
Near the halfway point of his senior season, Reynolds has caught 13 passes for 165 yards and a score during his career. He also has posted an outstanding academic record with a perfect 4.0 career grade point average as a mass communications major.
Reynolds wasn't a highly sought-after recruit coming out of Axtell High School, a Class 2A school in the Waco area. At 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing around 145 pounds when he first came to Sam Houston, Reynolds wasn't tall enough, strong enough or fast enough in the eyes of recruiters.
“In high school, I was undersized a little bit, so I never really got looked at and I went to a small school,” Reynolds said.
In 2011, the coaching staff gave Reynolds the opportunity to be a part of the football team by asking him to be a manager as a freshman back in 2011. That is where Reynolds' college football career began.
“It caught me by surprise, but I was like, 'Whatever I have to do to make it,' ” Reynolds said.
Instead of griping about the hand he had been dealt, Reynolds decided to try out for the team on the first day of school and let the chips fall where they may.
During tryouts, the coaches saw that Reynolds had the work ethic and enough talent to help the Bearkats prepare for game days as a member of the scout team. While there is nothing glamorous about being a part of the scout team, Reynolds looked at it as a foundation that might eventually lead to stepping onto the field in an orange and white jersey on Saturdays.
“They gave me the opportunity and let me show what I could do on the scout team,” Reynolds said. “At first, I was really limited because I came onto the team late. In the off-season, they saw that I worked hard, so they kept me on and eventually I just got better and better as I went.”
In the beginning, Reynolds didn't feel like he was making much progress.
“For the first weeks, you wouldn't even know I was there honestly,” Reynolds said. “I was just another guy out there and didn't really do a whole lot. I was an option quarterback in high school and was having to learn to play wide receiver as well.
“To learn, I watched people like Steve Williams and older guys while Torrance Williams and Trey Diller. I had to learn how to run routes certain ways and study it from a mental aspect and then actually go out there and do it.”
Reynolds never thought about quitting. He enjoyed putting on the pads and helping one of the best teams in the FCS get better every week.
“Even after my second year on the scout team, I liked being a part of something,” Reynolds said. “That kept me with it. The coaching staff saw a guy that worked hard but maybe not as somebody that would ever really contribute. That really pushed me harder to prove that I could play on Saturdays.”
When K. C. Keeler and his new staff took over the Bearkat program last season, Reynolds had the chance to prove himself to a new group of coaches. Reynolds finally earned the playing time he had been waiting for. He caught eight passes for 60 yards during the 2014 championship season.
“It does feel good just to know after all of the summers and all of the off-seasons that it pays off,” Reynolds said. “It makes me feel good for my hometown because a lot of people haven't really made it big out of Axtell. I can share my story, not to give up and to keep going every day because there are rewards.”
Reynolds scored his first touchdown in 2014 against Incarnate Word in San Antonio. With Sam Houston up 33-19 in the fourth quarter, his number was called and he made the most of the opportunity by catching a 13-yard scoring pass while his biggest fans cheered him on from the stands.
“I had a lot of family down there from San Antonio and my grandparents. It was one of the first games they got to come see,” Reynolds said. “The game was close for a while and I wasn't sure I was going to play. Then Yedidiah Louis's shoe came off and I just happened to go in and they called a play to me. I scored. It felt good to do it in front of a lot of people who don't get to see me play a lot.”
This fall, Reynolds has five catches for 105 yards including a critical 41-yard reception to keep a scoring drive alilve in the fourth quarter of the Lamar game. He caught two passes for 32 yards in front of more than 50,000 fans in Lubbock in the season opener at Texas Tech.
Reynolds, who stands as one of only two student-athletes at Sam Houston with perfect 4.0 grade point averages during their scholastic careers, no longer has any doubt regarding whether he belongs on the Bearkat football team.
“It makes everything worth it, all the stuff we do behind the scenes that you don't see,” Reynolds said. “Saturdays, game day, you can't replicate something like that.”
