With his next touchdown reception, A&M wide receiver Josh Reynolds will join the likes of Mike Evans, Ryan Swope and Jeff Fuller in the program’s top-five career receiving touchdown list. And yet, he’s only in his second season at A&M.
To many, Reynolds is a human highlight reel with his nose for the endzone and his shifty, acrobatic football skill. However, his teammates said he is not one to brag about his skills.
“He is very like a quiet assassin,” senior cornerback Brandon Williams said. “He don’t say too much, but when that deep ball is thrown, and you see number 11 come down with it, you know what he about.”
Right guard Joseph Cheek, who occupies a locker next to Reynolds, said the 6-foot-4, 195-pound junior is not known as a “rah-rah” kind of football player.
“Josh — it’s kind of crazy, I remember when he first got here — he’s the same now as when he first got here — he doesn’t ever say a word,” Cheek said. “He’s quiet, comes into work, and just watch him, they just sling the ball to him. The guy just makes plays.”
With few exceptions, Reynolds’ natural tendency to remain reserved governs his team leadership during games and practice.
“I’m more of a quiet guy out there on the field,” Reynolds said. “But the way I play and my body language out there in practice, it helps the guys out a little bit. It brings the tempo up in practice and makes practice a little easier.”
Reynolds’ journey from John Jay High School, located in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, to college football began as quietly. With little college recruiting interest from Division I schools, Reynolds elected to go to Tyler Junior College in 2013.
Before he headed off to Tyler Junior College, A&M track and field head coach, Pat Henry, tried to recruit Reynolds during his senior year in high school based on his talent in the triple jump event.
“Well, he can get off the ground can’t he?” Henry said. “And a great jumper, you can identify that on the track. You can see a guy who has that kind of explosiveness, you can see that on the track and on the runway in a track event.”
Henry, upon realizing Reynolds’ true desire to play football, elected to tip off head coach Kevin Sumlin on his potential value to the program.
“Coach Sumlin and I, we try to recruit some guys that are football-track guys,” Henry said. “Coach Sumlin is a guy who understands speed. He understands what speed can do on the football field, and so, as a track coach, I’m trying to help him from time to time, identify somebody he might not have seen.”
Sumlin and his coaching staff kept a watchful eye on Reynolds as he progressed in junior college and offered him a scholarship in December of 2013, just one season into his junior college stint.
Reynolds played immediately when he entered A&M as a sophomore in 2014, logging 842 receiving yards and breaking the school record of 12 single-season touchdown catches with 13 such receptions.
“I always go out there and just try to show people what they missed out on,” Reynolds said. “That’s what kind of person I am. I like going out there and proving people wrong and just showing people what I can do.”
Reynolds marches into this weekend’s matchup with Alabama fresh off back-to-back 100-yard receiving games, including a career-best 141-yard performance against Mississippi State.
Despite the fact that Reynolds nearly slipped by A&M and several top-football programs unnoticed, coach Henry described Reynolds as one of a kind.
“Those kind of guys are few and far between,” Henry said. “There aren’t many Josh Reynolds’.”