Nov. 9, 2015 Navy senior defensive end Will Anthony laughs as he recalls the first time he laid eyes on a freshman quarterback named Keenan Reynolds. It was early during the plebe summer for both players, who were strangers at the time. Anthony had come to Navy via the academy's prep school in Newport, R.I. Reynolds had taken the direct path to Annapolis, after graduating from Goodpasture Christian School in Nashville.
"I remember thinking, 'What position does [Reynolds] play'? He doesn't look like a running back, doesn't look like a quarterback," says Anthony, who would become Reynolds' roommate. "Maybe he's a short wide receiver. He kind of still doesn't look like a quarterback to me."
At 5 feet 11 in street clothes, Reynolds will not turn many heads as a football specimen, and he sure didn't back in the summer of 2012. What jumped out at his older teammates and the Navy coaches was Reynolds' insatiable curiosity about triple option concepts and his obsession with mastering the details of that offense as a signal caller.
And it quickly became clear to the older Midshipmen that the kid from Antioch, Tennessee - who would not remain a third-stringer for long that summer - was an unfazed plebe and a very quick study.
"Keenan had this chipper attitude that is not typical of a plebe. Those guys are usually so exhausted in camp, just trying to survive," recalls former Navy slot back John Howell, who was a senior in Reynolds' first year.
"Keenan would be standing behind the offensive huddle at [preseason] camp, picking people's brains. He wasn't scared of the upperclassmen," Howell adds.
"You could tell he had been digging into the books. He knew what the offensive line was supposed to be doing. I'd tell him about a defensive stunt that was coming, and he already knew it. He wasn't intimidated in the huddle. You could tell his mind was three or four steps ahead of where guys his age usually are."
That essence of Reynolds, who has gone on to become the best quarterback of the option era at Navy - and arguably the school's greatest quarterback not named Roger Staubach - has not changed.
"It's all about preparation - getting ready to react instead of think," says Reynolds, a rare, four-year starter at Navy. "If you know what looks you're going to get from a defense, and you know what you need to do to get the offense into a certain play, then you always have an answer."
"I've never had a freshman play quarterback in this offense," says Ivin Jasper, who has run the Navy offense for the past eight seasons and has coached Navy quarterbacks for 14 years. "And I haven't had a guy this good for this long at that position. "Keenan loves being a quarterback. He loves seeing a [defensive] coverage and calling out a check and directing everything," Jasper adds. "He hears everything you're teaching him, and he's a sponge. He wants to be great."
On Saturday, in his final appearance at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium against visiting Southern Methodist University, Reynolds could set the record that defines the mark he will leave on the school and its flagship program.
The next time Reynolds crosses an opponent's goal line, he will own more rushing touchdowns (78) than any player in NCAA history.
Entering Senior Day on Saturday, Reynolds has rushed for 3,977 yards, second-best in school history. He trails Napoleon McCallum by 202 yards. Reynolds has averaged nearly five yards on 880 career carries. He has been responsible for a school-record 620 points that includes 26 touchdown passes. His interception percentage (.017) is the best in program history.
How has this under-sized passer from Tennessee, who has played quarterback since age five, and who barely drew a Division I recruiting sniff yet refused to waver in his desire to lead a college offense, risen to such heights?
"Keenan has always been businesslike and meticulous with his preparation," Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo says. "And he's still the same humble and unselfish kid who showed up here." Reynolds' unselfishness was on obvious display in the closing minutes of Saturday's huge, 45-20 rout at 15th-ranked Memphis. With the ball on the Memphis one-yard line and the game decided, Reynolds checked out of a called QB sneak. Niumatalolo wanted him to set the record in his home state, in front of a throng of family and friends in attendance at the Liberty Bowl.
Instead, Reynolds, seeing the Tigers' nine-man front and knowing Memphis had not stopped the sweep all day, quick-tossed to slot back Demond Brown, who scored easily after streaking around the right side. "I still talk to Keenan a lot, and he really doesn't care about the records. His biggest thing is playing for his brothers, getting us in the right play and winning games," says Noah Copeland, who graduated last year after starting at fullback for three seasons behind Reynolds. Saturday's victory marked Navy's first win over a ranked opponent since the Mids beat Notre Dame in 2009. It was Navy's first victory over a top 15 school since the Mids upset No. 2 South Carolina in 1984. And it landed Navy in the top 25 for the first time since the end of the 2004 season.
The Mids are 7-1 for the first time since 2004 and are tied with Houston atop the Western Division of the American Athletic Conference at 5-0, in Navy's first season of conference affiliation. A chance to play in the first AAC title game and appear in a New Year's Day bowl game is within reach.
Since Reynolds came off the bench in the fourth quarter to relieve an injured Trey Miller in the fifth game of his freshman year at Air Force, then rallied Navy to a 28-21 win in overtime, Navy has won 28 of his 40 starts. Under Reynolds, the Mids have won back-to-back bowl games, have stretched their winning streak against Army to 13 and have gone 5-1 against both service academy rivals.
The most consistent force in the Navy arsenal over the past four seasons wears number 19. Good luck getting Reynolds to agree with that.
"[Reynolds] never talks about the record, unless I bring it up, and then he starts talking about something else," says Jalen Ramsey, the All-American junior cornerback from Florida State who grew up with Reynolds and played football with him throughout elementary and middle school.
"His heart is what sets Keenan apart," Navy senior left guard E.K. Binns says. "Keenan has always been very humble. Even now, we talk about his accolades more than he does. I think our offensive linemen want him to break the [rushing TD] record more than he does." During a conversation with a reporter a few days before the Mids traveled to Memphis, Reynolds, a veteran of hundreds of interviews at Navy, was his typically engaging, articulate self.
The grind of another long season also was showing. With practice approaching in the next three hours, Reynolds stifled a few yawns and looked ready for a nap. He also downplayed his achievements.
"Sure it means a lot to me. It's a blessing," Reynolds says, when asked about the scoring record he is poised to break. "But it's also kind of annoying, to keep talking about it. I'm ready to be done with it and move on.
"When you get too caught up in stuff like that and looking ahead, you get into trouble," adds Reynolds, a co-captain. "I read a saying - 'Focus on the climb, not the mountain.' That's where I am, and that's where we are as a team. I want us to keep moving, keep building momentum. I'm just focused on the process."
Donnie Reynolds, Keenan's father, can hardly remember a time when his son didn't have the ability to hone in on a task, whether it was in the classroom or in some athletic endeavor.
As a young boy who loved playing basketball, Keenan was frustrated with his off-hand dribbling. His father had him wear a blinder so he couldn't look down, and challenged him to dribble left-handed to the end of the driveway, then eventually to the end of the Reynolds' street. Keenan soon became a fluid dribbler with both hands.
During his four years lettering with the Goodpaster track team, Reynolds became dissatisfied with his sprinting performance. He spent much of his last two, high school summers working with his uncle's AAU track team to sharpen his technique and lower his race times.
But football really brought out the analytical side of Keenan, who learned to dissect the game from hours of film study with his father. Donnie played defensive back at the University of Tennessee-Martin.
"I remember telling Keenan in middle school that if you can't study film and break down your opponent, you're going to have trouble at the next level," Donnie recalls.
"Keenan understands he's not the biggest or fastest guy on the field, but he can be the smartest. He's cool and calm, like his grandfathers and his mother [Jacqueline]. He could always remember plays and repeat them to the other kids without messing it up. If somebody was lining up wrong, he'd point it out."
"[Reynolds] might not be the prototypical [Division I] quarterback, but he was always the quarterback on my team, always the leader," Ramsey says.
David Martin, who coached Reynolds at Goodpasture Christian School, also was struck by Reynolds' leadership qualities. Reynolds established himself quickly and won the starting job as a freshman.
In an offense that showcased his throwing ability, Reynolds piled up more than 6,000 yards of total offense and led Goodpasture to a 21-6 record and two district championships in his last two seasons. He earned district MVP honors each of those years.
"It was a grand experience to watch, how mature and humble and unselfish Keenan was. When he came in, we turned the reins over to him after about two weeks," Martin says.
"He never basked in the limelight. He directed others without ever alienating or intimidating them. He was running the no-huddle, checking out of plays and calling his own plays by his second year."
By committing to Navy, Reynolds took on a new challenge in the form of the triple option, which he had never run. During spring break of his senior year in 2012, Reynolds pulled a decidedly unconventional move.
Reynolds showed up at Navy's spring football session. He sat in on meetings and observed practices. He got a rudimentary feel for reading option keys and timing pitchouts. He picked Jasper's brain. He immersed himself in option concepts.
"I remember thinking, 'Who is this guy?' What's he doing here?" Copeland recalls. "Before long, Keenan had upperclassmen depending on him. He made practice hard, so the game came easy to him. The way he prepared, Keenan is probably one of the few perfect football players."
Niumatalolo recalls the early hints of greatness in Reynolds - how he rarely committed a major mistake in his first preseason camp and eased past John Hendricks into role of backup QB. Reynolds also entered blowout losses against Notre Dame and Penn State and moved the Mids down the field crisply. Those snapshots were a preview of things to come, starting with that special comeback in Colorado Springs. "Now I look back and see the bread crumbs Keenan was leaving on the trail, leading me to make the decision I probably should have made earlier," Niumatalolo says. "When he went in against Air Force, it changed everything. That was the 'ah-ha' moment."
Reynolds, who will be commissioned an officer in May and hopes to study cyber warfare in the intelligence community, is not thinking about the record or the AAC title or any Heisman Trophy talk. He is squarely focused on SMU, on the next moment.
"I like being in control of the ball and the play," Reynolds says. "I want to get everybody a piece of the pie. I want to be orchestrating things."
