DRUMMOND’S FINEST: Reynolds’ relentless grind carried him from Class C to the NFL

Editor’s Note: This biography was originally written for the Montana Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024. For more information on the HOF, visit https://www.mtfootballhof.com/

For so many, a “Welcome to the NFL moment” comes when the upstart rookie sees an established star. Or maybe, he looks around the locker room and sees veteran players who the rookie has spent years idolizing. Or maybe, the moment comes when the first-year NFL hopeful gets smacked in the midst of practice or a game.

For Chase Reynolds, his “Welcome to the NFL” moment took several years to materialize.

That’s how much the former University of Montana running back turned NFL special teams stud had to grind to secure his standing among the most ferociously competitive league in the United States. The Drummond, Montana legend had no time to be in awe of his star teammates with the St. Louis Rams.

It’s not that Reynolds didn’t appreciate his opportunity. And it’s not as if Reynolds was oblivious to sharing a position group room with Steven Jackson and Todd Gurley. It’s just that Reynolds had been accustomed to putting his head down, working, and plowing through every obstacle that came his way. And with the biggest challenge of his athletic life consuming him, Reynolds had to have a singular focus: just making the active roster.

“It wasn’t until year 3, until I had etched my mark as a special teams force,” Reynolds remembers nearly a decade later. “Jeff Fisher had been the coach of the Rams for a few years, and I was really close with my special teams coach (John “Bones” Fassel) and I finally didn’t have to think about if I had a job or not.

“And I had this moment where we were playing the Chiefs. Kansas City is the loudest stadium I’ve ever played in. And I looked around and I was like ‘Man, I can’t believe I’m here. I made it.’ I was finally able to enjoy the moment.”

What else would you expect from the greatest small-school athlete in the history of the state of Montana, a man who had spent a similar amount of time cutting his teeth just to make his mark with the Montana Grizzlies?

Reynolds encountered obstacles earlier than most throughout each major step of his life. And he has destroyed them all just like he did to potential tacklers for most of his pre-NFL career.

During his high school days, Reynolds was the most prolific running back the Treasure State has ever seen. As a teenager, he also had to grow up quicker than most when his son Talen — who joins the Grizzlies next fall — was born while he was still dominating the 8-man landscape at Drummond High School.

When he got to Missoula, he again faced an uphill battle as a Class C kid that the Griz coaches tried at cornerback and wide receiver before moving him back to his natural position in the backfield. That hard-charging, blue collar mentality helped Reynolds have one of the most rapid rises in the history of the program, accentuated by a slew of all-time records and adoring fans along the way.

So it only makes sense that when he made it to the NFL, he would apply the same can-do attitude and diligence until he made the team. Even if that meant learning every possible position in an effort to make it impossible to release him.

When you look back at Reynolds’ accomplishments, the production is stunning and the story is, well, storybook. A kid from a town of 300 who married his high school sweetheart before he even graduated from high school not only became one of the most revered players in the history of the University of Montana, he also carved out a reputation as one of the steadiest, most reliable and toughest players in the NFL in his six-year stint.

“There was no worry on his face. He was not afraid to get cut. The no consequence guys, they succeed,” said Tom McMahon, a special teams coordinator in the NFL since 2007 was the ST coordinator for the Rams during Reynolds’ rookie season. “If you were going to say, what’s the biggest thing you saw from Chase? No consequence player. It was all about production. That’s why he is successful in every single thing he does.

“He’s never worried. He’s just a consistent, persistent producer. He’s not worried about the future or tomorrow. He’s going to win the moment and he is going to let the moments keep building.”

The 36-year-old Reynolds has been a father for half his life. He remembers having working responsibilities for even longer than that. Whether it was working 12-hour days essentially running a ranch as a teenager or working on a highway crew while trying to make his way for the Griz, nothing was handed to Reynolds and his family.

All along the way, he’s had his wife, Kila, to support him. That cornerstone of unconditional love has helped him thrive at basically every turn.

Reynolds’ run of production between his freshman year of high school and his senior year of college is unprecedented when it comes to Treasure State ball carriers. He rushed for 5,261 yards and scored 114 touchdowns at Drummond High.

After toiling for more than two years at Montana, he got his chance and seized it like no Griz before or since. Reynolds rushed for 4,067 yards and a school-record 52 touchdowns. His 59 total touchdowns are the most in Montana history and rank second in the history of the Big Sky Conference.

That helped open the door for a chance in the NFL. While in the league, he touched the ball a grand total of twice, yet still managed to carve out a reputation as a tone-setting, unwavering special teams ace who could be trusted no matter the situation or scenario.

The unprecedented work ethic combined with the small-town spirit helped Reynolds become an unforgettable figure in the history of Treasure State football. And it makes him a headlining member of this year’s Montana Football Hall of Fame.

“He played a lot longer in the NFL than a lot of other running backs who didn’t do all the detailed specialization and dirty work that Chase did,” said John “Bones” Fassel, a longtime special teams coordinator who led the ST units in St. Louis when Reynolds was with the Rams and now works for the Cowboys.

“He always had this chip on his shoulder for being underrated and then you would get him into spots and he ALWAYS performed, no matter what level. He’s a Mount Rushmore special teams player for me, for sure.”

The dichotomy of Reynolds is that he has at the same time always believed in himself and produced like a supremely confident football player….while also wondering every time he moved up a football level if he belonged, whether it was breaking into the starting lineup at Drummond High School as a freshman or chasing wide receivers around as a scout team cornerback during his early days with the Griz or figuring out every intricacy of every special teams position in the NFL.

Reynolds has proven time and again that he can overcome the odds and the percentages. The first time Montana head coach Bobby Hauck met Chase and Kila, he thought, “These kids have no chance. The deck is stacked against them. It’s so steep uphill, it’s Mount Everest for them to have success or financial success or to stay married.”

The couple has achieved impressive success through football and in life after the gridiron. And now there’s a second generation Reynolds set to play for the Griz. Talen Reynolds will be a freshman running back for Montana in the fall of 2024. He hopes to wear his old man’s No. 34.

“To me, he and Kila and their kids is one of the all-time great success stories ever,” Hauck said. “Truly, in my coaching career, it’s one of the greatest success stories I’ve ever seen.”

It didn’t matter if Chase was a married father before he ever moved into the dorms. It didn’t matter that he was an 8-man football player trying to be the man the Grizzlies chose to replace NFL Draft pick Lex Hilliard in the backfield. It didn’t matter that he went undrafted in the spring of 2011, nor that he got cut from the Seattle Seahawks practice squad early on in his rookie year.

From the moment his NFL career began, Reynolds refused to leave the field until he mastered some detail of his special teams craft. Just like he refused to do anything but show up for his family while writing one of the great underdog stories in the Treasure State’s rich football history.

“Chase is one of the great offensive skill players in the University of Montana and the state of Montana’s history,” said Mick Delaney, the running backs coach at UM during Reynolds’ junior and senior years and then the head coach at UM from 2012 until 2014. “I coached for years at Colorado State, had six or seven NFL guys, and Chase was one of the toughest guys I’ve ever coached.

“Physically and mentally, he could handle anything and he challenged himself every single day to take care of his responsibilities as a husband and a father and a student and an athlete. That’s a lot on a young man’s plate. But he was able to discipline himself and put everything into perspective.

“Every single day he came to work. I could never remember a day when Chase didn’t come to work, come to practice or a ball game where there wasn’t 100 percent effort. That’s why he made it as long as he did in the NFL, too.”

Jim Oberweiser has been in Drummond for more than 40 years, working as an educator and coach for most of that time. He retired from Drummond in 2017 as the all-time wins leader in Class C 8-man football history after notching an astounding 233-94 record that included a 45-game winning streak, three straight state titles and five state crowns overall.

Oberweiser taught kindergarten back in the early 1990s and had Reynolds as a student. A few years later, he remembers observing Reynolds and noticing something different.

“I knew he was a talented kid from the very beginning,” Oberweiser said. “I remember when he was a fourth or fifth grader and he did a slide right there on the pavement on the playground to keep a goal from going in. I thought, ‘This is going to be a tough kid.’”

That toughness started at an early age. Reynolds had a full-time job basically running a ranch by the time he was in eighth grade. By the time college rolled around, he was a blue-collar veteran.

“I worked 12 hour days since when I could remember, changed pipe seven days a week,” Reynolds said. “Hayed during haying season and built a house and a subdivision on the property while I was in high school. I ran excavators, drove a dump truck, graders, all that.

“When I was a senior, I would change pipe in the morning, drive to Stevensville and work at a hot tub factory because the guy that owned the ranch in Drummond owned the hot tub company, then I’d get off at 5 p.m. and be back to change pipe in Drummond from seven until nine at night. Those were my summers.”

Reynolds truly blossomed as a sophomore, helping the Trojans take over 8-man football. As the wins and eye-popping point totals mounted, Drummond took center stage in Class C. Drummond was consistently on the front of the Missoulian sports section and the legend of Reynolds started to build around Western Montana.

The Trojans went undefeated in 2003, winning Drummond’s first-ever state title. The following year, the Trojans started beating teams by such wide margins that it started a debate of whether there should be a running clock rule for Class A, B and C football games in Montana. Although the 35-point “mercy” rule wasn’t instituted until 2010, the Trojans certainly played a role in its creation.

Drummond consistently won games by six, seven and eight touchdowns behind the explosive play of Reynolds, who had a stud offensive line anchored by future Griz Alex Verlanic, who went on to become a multi-year star at Montana. Drummond won the 2003 state title game 48-8 over Big Sandy. The Trojans went undefeated again in 2004, capped by a 44-6 state championship win. And in Reynolds’ senior year, Drummond posted a 54-0 win in the state championship game to cap a third straight undefeated season.

Almost as striking as the point totals was the number of high school boys who went out for the team. On any given weekend, you could see more players dressed for the Trojans as several of the Class AA high school football teams just 45 minutes to the west in Missoula.

“There might’ve been two or three boys that didn’t play but we would recruit them to be managers or take video or something,” Oberweiser said. “We had forty-some kids. Kids wanted to be a part of it.

“There was one game I remember where we were up 21-0 and we hadn’t even had the ball. Chase ran the opening kickoff back, then they punted to us, Chase ran the punt back, then we got an interception (Laughs). We took care of our bench as best we could.”

Oberweiser remembers Reynolds going to a camp at Montana Tech and receiving common instruction from a coach who emphasized being a “one-cut” back, instructing to finish runs after making a single move.

“Well, that was the last thing I wanted to do with Chase,” Oberweiser remembers. “He had a Barry Sanders bounce. He could get outside so fast. It was like trying to tackle a deer in the open field.”

Reynolds’ moves seemed unending on the 8-man field. That would not change when he got to Montana, even though many doubted he’d be able to put Big Sky Conference defenders in the spin cycle like he did his Class C opponents.

“It’s a wonderful combination of things,” Oberweiser said when asked what made Reynolds such an elite ball carrier. “Speed, obviously. Balance, incredible. Tough, tough, tough kid.”

The doubters say “there’s three less men on the field” and “wait until he plays real football”. Yet if you are the best, you are the best, especially when you can’t control your circumstances.

Reynolds is the best player in Class C history and everything from the wins to the statistics back it up. Yet his competitive nature had him wondering just what level he could play at once his illustrious high school football career ended with an eight-touchdown win.

“Before his senior year, he came to camp – we used to have a full contact camp back in those days — and he was playing on our renegade team with all the other individuals that weren’t part of a team,” Hauck said. “The small-school guys, it’s always a projection. Can they make the jump?

“In that camp, he was the best tackler in the camp. We played him at safety in that camp and he was a fabulous tackler. We thought, ‘this guy will probably play safety for us and for sure, he can play in the kicking game.’ And every time he touched the ball, he basically scored a touchdown. But who’s trying to tackle him? We just didn’t know.

“We decided we were going to recruit him.”

That’s when Hauck took the trip out to Drummond, observing first-hand the challenges Reynolds was facing head on.

The trends of hard work and achievement continued to repeat at Montana. Reynolds spent time trying to master defensive back, then wide receiver. Neither was a natural fit.

“I remember watching him do corner drills and one-on-ones, at corner and receiver, and running with his arms flailing, not natural,” said Ty Palmer, a three-year starting wide receiver for the Griz who was a year older than Reynolds. “But I long jumped against him in high school and I had watched him play. This guy so clearly made to be a running back… so I knew if they ever put him back there, he’d find his way,”

As with so many Griz walk-ons and partial scholarship players under Hauck, it took circumstances to help the small-school star find his way. First came the graduation of Lex Hilliard, one of the great running backs in Big Sky Conference history who became a sixth round pick of the Miami Dolphins.

Then came the arrest of Greg Coleman, a renegade transfer running back from Iowa State, directly following a road win at Idaho State in November of 2007. That legal trouble got Reynolds moved to running back.

And entering the 2007 season, the running back room at Montana knew they had plenty to prove.

“When we lost the 2007 class, and Lex Hilliard specifically, there was only me, Thomas Brooks-Fletcher, and Chase left in the running back room,” said Andrew Schmidt, a Bozeman product who had a few breakout moments in 2007 and 2008. “It really was an ‘Us against the world’ mentality where we really supported one another and wanted each other to succeed, because everyone else thought we would be the weakest link of the team.”

In the opener of the 2008 season, Schmidt rushed for 146 yards and a touchdown in a 30-28 win over Cal Poly. Reynolds got two carries.

Three weeks later, Reynolds flashed, rushing for 88 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-35 win over Central Washington to move the Griz to 4-0. Three of UM’s four wins had come by a combined total of 10 points, The fourth was a 46-10 drubbing of Southern Utah.

Following the CWU win, Reynolds was stuffed, rushing for 40 yards against Weber State in a 45-28 loss. The defeat served as the only Big Sky loss between 2006 and 2009 for the Griz. Although the next two weeks resulted in wins over Eastern Washington (19-3) and Sac State (43-7), Reynolds remained quiet.

Then on Oct. 25, 2008, Reynolds rushed for 137 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Northern Colorado. That sparked one of the greatest stretches in UM rushing history.

Over the next eight games, Reynolds rushed for 1,264 yards (158 yards per game) and scored 17 of his program-record 22 rushing touchdowns.

He had a month’s worth of iconic performances, starting by rushing for 115 yards and two scores in a 35-3 win over rival Montana State.

He rushed 38 times for 233 yards and two scores in a 31-13 win over Texas State in the first round of the FCS playoffs. He rushed for 185 yards on 33 bruising carries and scored twice in a vindicating 24-13 win over Weber State to avenge the October loss. And he rushed 23 times for 123 yards and two scores in Montana’s iconic 35-27 win over No. 1 James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia that serves as one of the landmark postseason wins in Griz and Big Sky Conference history.

“He was so tough and he never complained about a dang thing, no matter how much we gave him the ball,” Hauck said. “I remember back then, he was trying to support his family, so he would work on a highway crew all day during the summer, then show up for the evening lift covered in dirt in his work clothes, throw on a pair of cleats and go practice.

“Anyone that thought that thought they had it hard, here comes Chase. Then he produces like that. It influenced our team for the better.”

That 2008 run was only the beginning. By the time he was done producing, he was a multiple-time All-American and a record-setter.

“I remember after I got hurt in the second game of the season, I was on the sideline and we were playing Central Washington. Chase made a cut and I turned to whoever was next to me and blurted out ‘wow, this kid is going to be good,” Schmidt said. “I didn’t realize at the time just HOW good though. It was clear early in 2008 that Chase was going to be a good player, but to set the records and have the career he did is remarkable. He’s a truly special player.”

Reynolds rushed for 1,583 yards and 22 touchdowns as a sophomore. He followed that up with 1,501 yards and 22 touchdowns as a junior. Even while battling aching shoulders, enduring a coaching change, learning a new offense and shouldering the weight of expectations, he still managed to rush for 982 yards and nine touchdowns as a senior, earning first-team All-Big Sky honors for the second straight season.

“He was so much more mature than everyone the moment he arrived on campus,” Schmidt said. “How he was able to juggle school, workouts, meetings, football, on top of being a young father. And in the summer he even added a road construction job to all of that. Currently being a new father myself I don’t know how he did it at 19 years old when there are so many other distractions in college.

“And on top of everything, to play football at such a high level is extraordinary.”

He finished his Griz career just three yards short of Yohance Humphrey’s yardage record. And his 59 touchdowns rank second behind former Sac State jitterbug Charles Roberts in Big Sky Conference history.

“If his position coach had any wherewithal, Chase would be the school record holder for rushing yards,” Delaney quipped years later.

Reynolds did it all while raising a young family. Oberweiser remembers one day when he left the River Bowl after watching a Hauck practice, he was driving up Arthur Avenue, the main drag that goes North to South right in front of the University of Montana campus.. Oberweiser saw “a group of Griz guys in a convertible clearly on the way to the river.”

“And all I could think was that Chase was probably trying to hurry and shower so he could go to the grocery store, get some food and diapers, and then head home,” Oberweiser said. “It was truly remarkable the way he handled everything. And his wife deserves a ton of credit. She was a major anchor in their lives.”

Although Reynolds has one of the most decorated careers in the history of Griz football, his time at UM came to a heartbreaking end.

He struggled with shoulder injuries — likely the product of carrying the ball 793 times between 2008 and 2010 — that limited his action a bit as a senior. And when Montana State won in Missoula to clinch the Big Sky Conference title, it also snapped Montana’s 17-year streak of FCS playoff appearances, ending Reynolds’ college career abruptly.

For very many small-town heroes, a devastating ending would’ve been exactly that: The end. But not for Reynolds.

On his pro day, he ripped off a 40-yard dash of 4.58 seconds and clocked 6.76 seconds in the 3-cone drill. He also had a 36-inch vertical, which helped him get a shot with the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent.

He was waived 12 days after signing his first NFL contract. Three days after that, he got a shot with the Rams. In the final preseason game, he caught a 17-yard pass and also scored his first NFL rushing touchdown. He was cut from the active roster but resurfaced on the practice squad. He would bounce back and forth the next two seasons.

“There were times I felt like maybe my time was up,” Reynolds said. “We had gone down the road and it’s not easy raising two kids, not knowing if you are going to be employed or not. We are faith driven people and there were a lot of nights where we were trying to figure out what path to take. But no matter what, Kila was always there.

“And I come from a line of ways to make things work. I’m always willing to do what it takes to make things work. I knew I would give everything I got and I knew I could be proud of leaving no stone unturned.”

In 2013, he made the active roster right out of camp. Then in 2014, he led the team with 16 special teams tackles, the fifth-most in the NFL. After years of grinding, he finally could settle in and breathe easy about his status as a pro.

“He was always up in my office and so inquisitive about everything,” “Bones” Fassel said. “Whether it was returning the ball or playing as the personal protector or covering a kick, he was always in the office, always watching tape, always asking questions on the practice field. His work ethic, his drive, especially during practice, was second to none.

“One of the biggest reasons for players’ longevity is self-awareness. The guys who have it last longer. Chase had that in spades.”

Ahead of the 2016 season, the Reynolds’ family and the rest of the Rams were uprooted. The team decided to move to Los Angeles. Transitioning to the second-largest city in the country was one thing. Doing it while being a part of the reality show “Hollywood & Football” made it even more interesting.

“That captured the move and it was kind of a cool way to come into a new city,” Reynolds said. “We got to do a lot of cool things. I told them right out the gates, ‘I’ll do it, but here’s who I am and here’s what you are going to get. I’m pretty boring.’ I don’t know if the kid from Drummond is what they were looking for (laughs).”

Reynolds played through the 2016 season, that first in Los Angeles, before the state of Montana beckoned him home. Part of the transition was sparked when Fisher resigned as the head coach of the Rams. Fisher’s son, Brandon, had been a teammate of Reynolds’ at Montana and Jeff Fisher’s affinity for Montana boys is well known.

Since returning to the Treasure State, he and Kila have had success in real estate and state politics. Chase lost a highly contested race for a state senate seat in 2018.

The family has three children. Talen, a senior at Missoula Loyola, has signed with Montana to play football. Peyton is 14 and about to enter high school. Tenley is 9 years old.

It’s all come full circle for the Reynolds family. Not only is Talen about to embark on a journey playing for the same coaches that Chase played for in college, Chase has also had a chance to give back as a football coach at Loyola Sacred Heart.

So much of what made Reynolds who he is stems from his background growing up. He’s never known anything but hard work. As the old saying goes, football not only builds character, it reveals it.

So when Bobby Hauck calls Reynolds one of the all-time greatest success stories in his coaching career, it bears weight.

Reynolds is one of the legends of Montana football lore. Yet he continues to be humbled by a game that gave him so much.

“There’s so many life lessons in the game of football and that’s why I coach the game,” Reynolds said. “The best way to influence our youth other than being a parent is to be a coach and be a positive influence in their lives.

“There are so many entrepreneurial skills you learn on the football field. That’s been so beneficial. For so many, football is so defining. Luckily for me, I’ve always loved the game but also known that I needed something else to do. That starts with being a father and a coach. I knew I had to have a plan for my family.

“But football is the greatest game on the planet. I learned so much growing up in Drummond, learned the work ethic from my dad, learned all these things that rolled right into the game, then when I was done, rolled right out into real life. It’s truly a special team. There’s the team aspect and the individual work and the times you are working in the dark. It’s the all-around team game that symbolizes the discipline it takes to be successful in life and that’s what I love about it.”

LISTEN & WATCH

WATCH: Chase Reynolds joins the ESPN Roundtable on Tootell & Nuanez in September 2026.

LISTEN: Reynolds reminisces with former Griz teammates on Cussin’ & Discussin’ with the GFPA.

LISTEN: Reynolds visits Nuanez Now in November 2023.

LISTEN: Reynolds on the ESPN Roundtable in 2019.

MORE: Former Griz head coach Mick Delaney (listen), former Missoulian beat writer Fritz Neighbor (listen) and NFL special teams coach Tom McMahon (listen) share their memories of Reynolds on Nuanez Now.