Thank-you and Goodbye to Coach Lance Reynolds

The retirement of one of the longest tenured coaches in BYU history was announced after BYU's Poinsettia Bowl victory over San Diego State on Thursday the 20th. Lance Reynolds, after 31 years of coaching at BYU, is retiring.

Reynolds, just by raising his four sons has already contributed more to the football program at BYU than almost any other person in the history of the program. His oldest son Lance Jr, was second team All-Conference center in the Mountain West Conference in 2005 and went on to play a year in the NFL for the Seattle Seahawks. The second oldest son, Dallas, started all 51 games of his college career at BYU and was first team All-Conference his senior season in the Mountain West Conference, and College Football News Third Team All-American. Dallas went on to play for the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL where he is currently having a break-out season.

Matt Reynolds, the next in line, was first team All-Conference in the Mountain West Conference as a sophomore and a junior and was first team All-Independent his senior season. Matt started every game of his career at BYU for 52 starts which is tied for the most starts in BYU history. Matt was signed by the Carolina Panthers, was cut, and is now on the Eagles with his brother Dallas. Houston was a junior on the offensive line this year and is likely applying for a medical redshirt after tearing his achilles against Utah.

Add Reynolds coaching contributions to the program and he is certainly one of BYU Cougar Football's most valuable people in the history of the program. Coach Reynolds was the running backs coach for five of the top six rushers in program history, and has served on the staff under three different head coaches. During that time he has served as a graduate assistant, junior varsity coordinator, running backs coach, tight ends coach, offensive line coach, assistant head coach and offensive coordinator.

With Coach Reynolds' retirement, the search is on for a tight ends coach at a university that has more All-Conference and All-American tight end alumni than most other schools in the country. There is a rumor that Chad Lewis is the leading candidate for the position, and it would be a shocker if he didn't eagerly accept the position with him currently serving as the Associate Athletic Director over development at BYU.

It is unclear as to why Reynolds decided to retire before Houston's graduation, which is when Cougar fans had anticipated him handing in the clipboard, but it's unfortunate that his last few years at BYU were years of poor offensive play when he had enjoyed coaching so many fantastic BYU offenses in his career. For Coach Reynolds' sake I hope that he gets to enjoy his first few years of retirement watching a healthy and strong Houston play for the prolific BYU offense that it has the potential to be. He deserves it.