Life was good for Daejon Reynolds in early September 2020. He was committed to the Florida Gators. He’d transferred to Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia, in part to play his senior season with his friend and future UF teammate Carlos Del Rio-Wilson. He was on track to graduate high school a semester early and get a jump start on his college career.
Then, just days before the season-opening game, misfortune struck. While running a route during a scrimmage, Reynolds’ knee buckled, and he hit the turf. A trip to the doctor revealed that he had torn his meniscus. Normally, a torn meniscus takes a month or two to heal. However, Reynolds’ injury turned out to be more severe than it was initially thought to be, and he underwent a season-ending surgery. Just like that, practices and games gave way to rehabilitation and the agony of watching his teammates play without him.
Ready to get back to work!#GVE#GoGators pic.twitter.com/4So2rWTeyN
— DR⁴ (@DaejonReynolds) September 9, 2020
While Reynolds should be cleared to practice with the Gators in the spring, it is unknown if he’ll be limited or if he’ll be the same athlete as he was before the injury. Might the advantage Reynolds tried to gain by enrolling early be wiped out?
Being an underdog is nothing new for Reynolds. In fact, he’s been one since he started high school. If recent history is an indication, he won’t just survive this latest test of his athletic ability and character; he’ll pass it with flying colors.
First, as he neared the beginning of his freshman season at Central Gwinnett High School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, head coach Todd Wofford chatted with some local youth coaches to get a feel for his new 5-foot-11 receiver known as “DaeDae.” Because he wore a rib protector in recreational football in the eighth grade, they questioned his toughness.
“The youth coaches told me, ‘Well, you know, he’s got potential, but I think he might be a little soft,’” said Wofford, who is currently the receivers coach at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Georgia. “That’s what they told me. And so, I told him, I said, ‘Look, DaeDae, this is what the word is on you from the park.’ I really think as a freshman, those guys telling me and me telling him that they thought he was soft motivated him and drove him because he didn’t respond.”
He may not have responded verbally, but what he did over the next three years sent a very loud message. He hauled in 130 catches for 2,063 yards and 18 touchdowns in three seasons at Central Gwinnett, earning scholarship offers from more than 30 Power Five programs along the way.
“I always say to those coaches, ‘I thought y’all told me this kid was soft?’” Wofford said. “And they’re like, ‘I don’t know what you did to him, but he didn’t play like that in eighth grade.’”
Then, in the spring of his sophomore year, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds at a regional camp as part of Nike’s The Opening. Wofford pointed out that Reynolds only ran the 40 that one time, and it was about 20 degrees when he did so. If he were to run it again with more favorable conditions, he would clock in somewhere in the 4.5-second range. That’s plenty fast enough for a guy who’s now listed at 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds.
Still, a narrative had been formed in the court of public opinion that he was too slow and would have a difficult time creating separation against SEC defenses.
The next fall, Reynolds was one of the most productive receivers in his state, catching 88 passes for 1,534 yards and 14 touchdowns in Gwinnett County, which is considered one of the biggest recruiting hotspots in the country.
Wofford believes Reynolds is a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses because of his combination of size, strength and speed and compared him to former NFL receiver Brandon Marshall and current Baltimore Ravens receiver Dez Bryant.
“Once he gets it in his hands, he’s just hard to get down,” he said. “He can get you over the top because he’s a physical mismatch against most DBs because he can run, and he’ll block his tail off. I moved him around a lot. He played outside mostly, but, to create mismatches on linebackers and safeties, I moved him around to the slot, I brought him out of the backfield, just a lot of different things. He can do about everything.”
More than anything, though, it was his attitude and work ethic that ultimately allowed him to overcome the obstacles in his way and succeed. In both instances, he didn’t allow the outside criticism to get him angry or discouraged. Instead, he used it as motivation and went back to work. His no-nonsense approach even confused some of the college recruiters.
“He’s one of the most driven kids I’ve ever coached,” Wofford said. “He wanted to be great. We had had a string of top players, All-American type players that had been through the school, and I had several guys even before I got to Central and all that. He just wanted to be the next one. He worked his tail off to be like that.
“When the college coaches would come in, a lot of the times it’s like some used car salesman kind of thing, and they would come in and crack jokes. He doesn’t mess around like that. He wants to know ‘What are you trying to tell him?’ So, he wouldn’t laugh at the jokes and stuff they would try to do, and I would have to explain to them ‘Look, this is him. This is it. He’s not that joke around kind of guy. He’s a strictly business kind of kid,’ and some of the recruiters didn’t know how to handle that.”
One area his work ethic manifests itself is in the weight room. He can squat lift 500 pounds and bench 300 pounds, according to Wofford. Those are usually figures associated with linemen.
Once again, Reynolds finds himself with his back to the wall. He’ll enter the spring at UF with at least six or seven receivers ahead of him on the depth chart. Additionally, any time a player comes back from a significant knee injury, there are always concerns about whether he’ll be able to run as fast or jump as high as he could before and concerns about how he’ll bounce back mentally. Because Reynolds doesn’t have blazing speed to begin with and relies on out-muscling defenders, those concerns are escalated even further.
However, this is exactly the type of crossroads situation that Reynolds has thrived in throughout his career.
While he’s only known Reynolds for about a year and never got to coach him in a game, Grayson head coach Adam Carter believes that big things are in store for Reynolds due to his work ethic and never-say-die mentality. While he was initially disappointed in not being able to play his final season of high school football, Reynolds didn’t wallow in a pool of self-pity. Instead, he stayed engaged with his team and worked out as much as possible. Carter thinks he’ll make an All-SEC team before he leaves Florida.
“He comes in early, catches the Jugs machine just to make sure his hands are right,” Carter said. “He’s out there learning every day. He’s just a special kid, now. He’s one of those receiver kids that you don’t get all the time. He’ll be special down there in the SEC. He’ll make a name for himself.”
Trying to predict how a recruit will pan out at the college level is inherently an iffy proposition, but one thing is abundantly clear: never bet against Daejon Reynolds.