‘Those are the guys that you cheer for’: Utah linebacker never gave up — or transferred — and has been rewarded with starting job

For three seasons, Utah linebacker Trey Reynolds patiently waited his turn behind some great linebackers.

Devin Lloyd, Karene Reid, Lander Barton and Levani Damuni, to name a few, were all playing at Utah at one point or another during Reynolds’ first three seasons. The three-star recruit from Queen Creek, Arizona, simply kept his head down and kept working, learning from the veterans in front of him as well as linebackers coach Colton Swan.

As offers to leave Utah came in over the years, Reynolds rebuffed them, deciding to finish what he started in Salt Lake City and remain loyal to the Utes.

“Trey always told me he’s a Ute and he’s sticking it out,” Reynolds’ father, Paul, told the Deseret News this week. “He’s a very loyal kid, Trey, and he had a lot of opportunities to go different places. I’m pretty proud of him. He just kept working and things panned out.”

Reynolds’ commitment to Utah is paying off now as he has become a full-time starter for an undefeated Utes team, but it’s been a long journey for the talented linebacker.

“I’ve been here for all four years and this program means a lot to me. I’ve given my heart and soul into this program, so it means a lot to get something out of it, get some playing time and lead this defense,” Reynolds said.

Committing sight unseen

2020 was a strange year for college football recruiting.

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA banned all face-to-face contact between coaches and recruits. That meant Reynolds, who graduated from Queen Creek High in the spring of 2021, didn’t even have a chance to tour Utah’s campus while being courted by the coaching staff.

Offers poured in from schools like Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington and UCLA, but also Yale and Duke. Reynolds had his pick of good universities to choose from, but Utah stood out above the rest.

Utah’s culture was the major selling point for Reynolds. Without seeing any school’s facilities, campuses or game-day experiences, the connection to the coach recruiting him and the culture described by Swan proved to be paramount.

Before Trey talked with Swan, Paul said he had no indication that his son wanted to go to Utah. The conversation with his future linebackers coach swayed Reynolds to commit to the Utes.

“I love the culture here, it’s the reason why I came here. I love the RSNB culture, love all the coaches,” Reynolds said. “When I was recruited, it was during COVID and I didn’t have a chance to come see the university, go check out all these places. When I got here, I loved it. It was true, the culture was true.”

The work ethic that has become Reynolds’ hallmark allowed him to see the field in his freshman season in 2021, mostly on kickoff coverage, as the Utes won their first-ever Pac-12 championship.

Right at what some would consider the peak of Utah’s program, Reynolds chose to walk away after his freshman season and serve a mission for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

‘Everything we did was competition’

Paul, a former linebacker who played for Arizona State’s 1996 Pac-10-champion team, credits football for helping shape him.

“It did a lot. That’s why I love the game of football, just because it teaches you a lot of stuff in life and how to persevere and keep getting through things,” he said.

It was the life lessons that football teaches players, more than anything, that motivated Paul to get his kids into playing the sport, but it didn’t happen right away.

Tait, the youngest boy of the family, didn’t start until he was a freshman in high school. Trey, the oldest, and Porter, the middle boy, started a little earlier than that in seventh grade.

Prior to that, the Reynolds boys played all kinds of sports, including baseball, which helped develop them athletically. Of course, there was all kinds of competition happening at home, too.

“I mean, they really competed against each other growing up. We had a basement and they were wrestling and playing basketball and different things down in the basement all growing up,” Paul said. “Outside too, we had a park by (the) house and they were always competing against each other.”

“That was kind of nice having three brothers and a sister, the younger sister too, that kind of got those competitive juices going with playing all those different sports and different things in the yard and the basement.”

The competitiveness spilled over into off-the-field life.

“Super competitive in everything we did. Who could eat the fastest, who could run the fastest?” Trey said. “We would be competing in drills all the time, who did their homework the fastest. It was funny, but who could work out the hardest, it was awesome.

“Everything we did was competition and our dad influenced that a little bit and taught us how to work hard. So I’m really appreciative of him and my siblings for really buying into that and living that way.”

Eventually, that competitiveness drove the Reynolds into football, where the teamwork and camaraderie required to be successful quickly made them fall in love with the sport.

Trey and Porter took after their dad and played linebacker, while Tait played quarterback. All three Reynolds, starting with Trey, made college scouts take notice with their work ethic, physical attributes and knowledge of the game.

“I wouldn’t say it’s almost like the expectation, but we all knew that we had the ability and we expected that of each other,” Trey said.

Trey committed to Utah and Porter — now at UT Martin — committed to Northern Arizona. Tait, meanwhile, chose to play for Dabo Swinney and Clemson.

All three brothers are currently playing college football at the same time.

“It’s cool that we’re living out this dream and all this hard work that we’ve put in is paying off,” Trey said.

As the oldest, Trey has the most experience in college football and was able to impart some wisdom to his younger siblings as they started their college football journeys.

“I feel like the biggest thing I told him was just to relax, just chill out. It’s going to be fun. It’s a cool opportunity. You’re going to build a relationship with a bunch of guys,” Trey said.

“I feel like when I first got here, I was stressed out. I was the oldest one, first one kind of doing it in my family and I was stressed out all the time.

“I wish I could go back and tell myself just to chill and make relationships and connect,” he continued. “So that’s what I told him is just to relax and being stressed doesn’t help anything.”

Porter has registered eight tackles this season at UT Martin, while Tait has the biggest spotlight of the entire family as Clemson’s starting quarterback.

“They’re the hardest workers I know and they get after it,” Tait said of his brothers in a press conference.

“It’s helped me a lot since I got here, just having those people do it before me, I kind of knew what to expect. That’s pretty rare for most freshmen. … It’s been awesome to be around them my whole life and they’ve been pushing me harder than anybody forever.”

During his freshman season, Tait took over as the Tigers’ starter in just the third game of the season. As a starter, Tait is 2-1 with 616 passing yards, a touchdown and three interceptions.

His career is just beginning, though, and his older brother is excited to see how he grows as a player.

“It makes me extremely proud as his older brother, seeing where he was all growing up and the player that he’s developed (into),” Trey said. “And honestly, I’m more excited about the player that he’s going to be. He’s got a long way to go, but he’s one heck of a player and I’m extremely proud of him.”

Saturdays for the Reynolds family are crazy, as the family keeps tabs on all three boys, making it a priority to be at each of the boys’ games throughout the season. Sometimes they’ll watch one of their kid’s games on their phones during TV timeouts.

Having two brothers going through similar experiences is a unique thing at the college football level, and the Reynolds brothers are able to lean on each other.

“We talk all the time. We talk about the reads and all that stuff. So it’s really fun because we’re all in it together. I have two brothers in college and it’s fun to compare and kind of just talk about the game,” Trey said.

‘Disciples of Christ’

Trey served his Latter-day Saint mission in Nashville, Tennessee, while Porter served his mission in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Ahead of the biggest game of his life against Miami, Tait used time in his press conference to share his faith when asked about the pressure of facing the No. 4 team in the country.

“You just stay focused on the process. Whatever happens, the good, the bad, at the end of the day, I’m just a disciple of Jesus Christ. I just try to be that all the time,” Tait said. “My identity is not in football.”

For the Reynolds family, faith will always be the top priority.

“It’s No. 1, to be completely honest with you. Tait knows that, Trey knows that, and Porter. They’re disciples of Christ first and the football comes later,” Paul said.

“Hopefully they can do enough good things on the football field to be a good example and a good disciple of Christ and help spread that word. It’s important to us. We got them into football just for the work ethic and things like that, but football is secondary to our faith.”

‘There is not a guy on the team that will outwork Trey Reynolds’

After returning from his mission, Trey picked up where he left off on special teams. Coaches took note of the work that he put into improving his game, but he was still buried on the depth chart behind players like Barton and Reid, only getting a few snaps at linebacker in three blowout games.

Instead of transferring somewhere else with a better path to playing time, Reynolds doubled down at Utah — a rarity in the age of the transfer portal.

“It’s just not me. It’s not my personality. I don’t give up. I kind of felt like I was giving up if I did that. I just loved it here and I didn’t want to leave,” Reynolds said.

In 2025, Reynolds got the break he needed. While Barton and Johnathan Hall were the starters at linebacker, Reynolds saw the field for nearly 240 snaps, including four starts. In the season opener at UCLA, he picked off Nico Iamaleava to set the stage for an impactful year.

Reynolds recorded 28 tackles, six tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and two interceptions. He gave Utah fans a glimpse of the future in the Las Vegas Bowl win over Nebraska, where he recorded a career-high five tackles (two for loss).

With Barton graduating, Reynolds was next in line to take over as a starter in Utah’s defense his senior season.

For Swan, who recruited him and has coached him ever since, seeing Reynolds get his shot has been sweet.

“Trey Reynolds is a rock. He’s been a rock ever since he’s been here. He is steady. He is a guy that does everything right. He’s extremely productive,” Swan said. “… There is not a guy on the team that will outwork Trey Reynolds. He is exactly who you want when you’re recruiting guys, ones that do not shy away from that hard work.”

Utah’s linebacker room hasn’t skipped a beat with Reynolds in a starting position. He leads the team in tackles with 32 and already has three tackles for loss and an interception. He’s also forced the fourth-most quarterback hurries on the team.

Reynolds has received praise for his leadership this season and was named a captain.

“He’s taken over as a leader in the room. He’s very compelling, meaning bringing a lot of the players, not only in the linebacker room, but defensively, along with him,” Swan said.

It’s been quite the process for Reynolds as he has climbed up the ranks to become a starting linebacker, one that has required patience, determination and a strong work ethic.

For Reynolds, the journey has been well worth it, and he — and Utah — are reaping the rewards.

“Those are the guys that you cheer for. You want them so bad to have success because they don’t quit, they don’t give up, they keep working, they keep developing and they stay committed to the process and he’s playing at such a high level right now,” said coach Morgan Scalley.