Fourth-and-10, 48 seconds to play. One conversion stood between the 49ers and victory — a sixth win that would make Charlotte bowl-eligible for the first time in program history.
Coach Will Healy made the call made to leave the offense on the field and forgo a long field-goal attempt that could have given Charlotte a seven-point advantage, and definitely would have given Marshall the ball back.
The pressure was on quarterback Chris Reynolds to deliver, and he did.
Reynolds, then a sophomore, lofted a deep ball to the corner of the end zone where Victor Tucker out-willed his defender, reeling in the pass for the game-winning score. That play marked the third time in a four-game span that Reynolds engineered a game-sealing drive.
“When it’s the fourth quarter, we don’t care about how tall you are, how many stars you had coming out of high school, or how highly recruited you were,” Tucker said recently. “We just want to win, and that’s one thing I can say about me and Chris. When we look at each other in the fourth quarter, we only expect to win and make those big plays.”
Reynolds is accustomed to the pressures of leading a team in crunch time. He is 363 yards from passing Matt Johnson for the most passing yards in program history and is hours away from a date with Duke, marking the first time Charlotte has ever hosted a Power Five program at Richardson Stadium.
Reynolds, a fourth-year starter and fifth-year senior, has seen nearly everything the 49ers’ program has to offer. The former walk-on joined the program in July 2017 when then-coach Brad Lambert decided to give him a shot.
“Coach Lambert gave me a scholarship after the spring of my freshman year. They’re just good people. Genuine people. I’m thankful for everything they’ve done for me,” Reynolds said. “They’re the only ones who gave me a shot, so I can’t thank them enough for that opportunity. Without them, I wouldn’t have built the relationships and met the people that I have now. They gave me the only opportunity I had to play college football at the Division I level.”
Charlotte 49ers took a chance
Coming from Davie County High in Mocksville, all Reynolds knew was that he could play and make a difference for someone.
The problem was that almost no one wanted to give him a chance.
Reynolds, who was 5-foot-10 as a high school senior, never earned a star rating from recruiting services such as 247 Sports or Rivals despite attending various combines.
His college offer list upon graduation: blank.
But Lambert and his staff saw potential in a hard-working kid from a tight-knit family in rural North Carolina.
“I knew right away that I had to exercise every possible way of proving myself to our coaches. Knowing that I was sixth on the depth chart and that my chances of moving up relied on scout team performance gave me all the motivation I needed,” Reynolds said. “I knew I could play, and I knew I could help our team win, so my main focus was just working as hard as I could to be on that field with my brothers.”
It didn’t take long for Reynolds to carve out a substantial role. He took the reins as a redshirt freshman in 2018, led the team to its first winning season and bowl appearance the following year with a new coach and fought off highly touted transfers along the way.
Reynolds passed for 28 touchdowns and accounted for 3,331 total yards that season but tore the labrum in his throwing shoulder on the first play of 2020.
He didn’t miss a snap through the injury. He played all six games of the cancellation-ridden season, though his performance never reached pre-pandemic levels, completing a career-worst 54.9% of his passes.
“Pressure is always going to be there, but I’m not sure if that’s the right word. I was talking to my dad about this (recently), and he made a good point,” Reynolds said. “I’m passionate about football, man. I love football. But is this pressure?
“Pressure is working a job and not being able to put food on my kid’s table. That’s pressure. This is a game that I’m grateful enough to play. This is fun. Are there hard situations where people are going to count on me? Yes. Am I going to mess up? Yes. But, I’m going to learn from it — and that’s the best part about it.”
Earned respect
Reynolds gets it.
He gets that football is a game. That there are more important things than football. That the success he’s had is a product of hard work, yes, but that he wouldn’t be in this position as a potential record-setting Division I quarterback if it weren’t for those around him.
Take the 2019 win over Middle Tennessee. Reynolds had passed for 192 yards and a touchdown in the win, along with a then-career best 103 rushing yards and a score. At his request, his entire starting offensive line joined him at the table for the postgame press conference.
“These guys go unnoticed, and they need to be recognized,” Reynolds said at the time.
That’s the type of leader Reynolds has been these past five years in Charlotte. The walk-on mentality never wavered and while the results haven’t always played in his favor, the growth of the program since 2017 correlates strongly with Reynolds’ ascendance.
“When your best players are your best leaders and your best workers, then you have a chance,” Healy said, quoting Alabama head coach Nick Saban. “Chris has been exceptional. He’s executed really well, and that’s what you expect him to do. I think the steps he’s taken to become the face of our program have been really impressive. We’re so lucky to have him back again and, obviously, we feel like we’re in good hands with him running the show.”
The 2021 season begins Friday night and it could be Reynold’s last season-opening game should he choose to forgo the extra year of eligibility the NCAA granted athletes due to the pandemic. When asked if this year would be his last, Reynolds paused.
“Being a 49er is special to me. They’re the ones who gave me a shot,” he said. “I’ve built some of the best relationships here. You only get one shot at this thing, and I want to make sure when I look back that I don’t regret anything.
“I want to make sure I look back and say I gave it everything I had in my time here. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. I’m taking it day by day. All I know is I’m going to give it my all for this school.”
Duke at Charlotte 49ers
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When: 7 p.m. Friday
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Where: Jerry Richardson Stadium, Charlotte
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Watch: CBS Sports Network