Luke Reynolds spent his first two college seasons waiting for the right door to open. At Virginia Tech, he looks like the kind of tight end who can walk right through it.
The former five-star recruit arrives in Blacksburg with a résumé that still carries plenty of shine. Reynolds was a 247Sports five-star out of Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, ranked No. 29 overall and the top tight end in the 2024 class. He flashed that promise at Penn State, but he also spent time buried behind Tyler Warren, the John Mackey Award winner who went on to become a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Even in a limited role, Reynolds found ways to stand out. As a true freshman, he finished with nine catches for 111 yards and a touchdown, including a 24-yard grab against Purdue on Nov.
- The play that really hinted at his upside, though, came a week later on a fake punt at Minnesota.
On fourth-and-1 late in the fourth quarter on Nov. 23, 2024, Reynolds took the snap and broke free for a 32-yard run that helped close out Penn State’s 26-25 win.
By his sophomore year, Reynolds had a larger role after Warren left, and he caught 26 passes for 257 yards. The touchdowns didn’t pile up - he scored only once in his Penn State career - and the tight end group was used less in 2025 as Penn State leaned hard on the run. Kayton Allen rushed for 1,303 yards and 15 touchdowns, while Nick Singleton added more than 1,850 combined rushing yards and 28 total scores.
Virginia Tech, though, is a different setup, and Reynolds didn’t land there by accident. First-year Hokies coach James Franklin recruited him to Penn State, and offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Ty Howle was a major reason Reynolds signed there in the first place. When he entered the portal, he carried a “do not contact” tag because he already knew where he was headed.
That kind of familiarity matters, especially in an offense built to feature the tight end. Howle’s system leans on the position the way Franklin’s Penn State teams did, and Reynolds gives Virginia Tech a versatile piece at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds. He can line up inline or flexed into the slot depending on the look.
He’s not just a size-and-recruiting-rankings story, either. Reynolds played quarterback until his junior year of high school before moving to tight end full time, and his athletic testing matched the background. He ran a 4.5 in the 40-yard dash and posted a 38-inch vertical.
The Hokies already have bodies in that room with Benji Gosnell, Harrison Saint Germain and Ja’Ricous Hairston, along with fellow Penn State transfer Matt Henderson. Reynolds, though, is the highest-rated recruit of the group, and spring quickly showed why Virginia Tech is excited.
He led all players in the spring game with five catches for 69 yards and looked like quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer’s favorite target. Defensive coordinator Brent Pry, the former Virginia Tech head coach now running the defense, took notice. Pry called Reynolds “a pretty special guy” and said he hadn’t realized the tight end had that kind of speed for his size until he saw it in person.
Reynolds has two years of eligibility left under the old rules, though the new age-based NCAA model could leave him eligible for a third depending on age. After spending the first part of his career waiting behind other names, he now lands in a place where the fit is obvious and the opportunity looks real.
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