Best could be yet to come for ISU's Reynolds

By Rob Gray, Correspondent

AMES - Don't call it a breakout season.

Yet.

Iowa State wide receiver Darius Reynolds may be coming off his two most productive games in an injury-plagued career, but his coach, Paul Rhoads, believes the best is yet to come.

“Darius is a physical freak,” Rhoads said of the senior nicknamed ‘Money,' who has tripled his career touchdowns total to six in the past two games. “He's a 400-plus bench press guy. He's a middle 500 squat guy. He can jump 40 inches vertically. That's good (for) catching the ball, but it's also good (for) blocking and other things in our offensive game and we've got to be able to take advantage of that.”

Beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday in ISU's Big 12 Conference home opener against revenge-driven, top-25 Texas ISU will be cast as the underdog again.

That's fine with Reynolds.

“Cyclones, we've always been fighters,” said Reynolds, whose still dealing with the pain associated with a broken toe sustained in the preseason. “We're never going to just let a team walk in there, take the game and walk out. Any game, any Saturday, we never know what's going to be the outcome. All we know is we're going to give it up until the last whistle blows. That's all we can do. Whatever the outcome is, we've earned it or we deserved it.”

That hard-nosed philosophy applies to ISU's 3-0 start, too.

And Reynolds has played a pivotal part in two of the past three comebacks.

He hurdled two defenders to score the game-winning touchdown Sept. 16 in the Cyclones' 24-20 road triumph at Connecticut.

The previous week, he notched four catches for 65 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter and overtimes of a 44-41 3OT win over Iowa.

His totals the last two games?

Ten catches, 213 yards and four touchdowns.

His totals in the previous two seasons?

Thirty-eight catches, 355 yards and two scores.

“To know that you've had a way bigger impact than you had in the previous years is a great feeling,” said Reynolds, who missed most of 2009 with a broken leg and was hampered by ankle sprains last season. “It couldn't happen in a better year. It's my senior season, I know my teammates need me. They're relying on me to make plays.”

Rhoads wants to see more of them as Reynolds gets his feet - and toe - completely under him.

“He went into the UNI game with basically no practice,” Rhoads said. “he went into the Iowa game with minimal practice. He got more last week and now he's out there full speed doing everything.”

Full speed doesn't necessarily translate to full health, though.

Not every day of the week, anyway.

“I'd say it feels a lot better on Saturdays than it does going through practice,” Reynolds said, smiling. “Saturdays I'm always 100 percent. Monday through Friday, it's just trying to get through it.”

It hasn't always been easy.

Despite his physical gifts, the procession of hard-luck injuries began to affect Reynolds' psyche.

Briefly.

“I kind of got down on myself a little bit towards the first game,” Reynolds said. “But in my mind, I just didn't want to let it affect me. I didn't want to miss this season. I didn't want to miss any games this season. So I kind of toughened up.”