Diron Reynolds

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Hometown
Aiken, South Carolina

Alma Mater
Wake Forest ’94

Recruiting Areas
California (Greater Stockton-Modesto), Alabama, Florida (Panhandle, North), Georgia (Southern), North Carolina, South Carolina

Notable Players Coached
Solomon Thomas, Harrison Phillips, Jared Allen, Kevin Williams, Pat Williams, Jason Taylor, Dwight Freeney, Thomas Booker

Diron Reynolds first joined the Stanford coaching staff in 2014 as a defensive assistant, and rejoined the Cardinal as defensive line coach prior to the 2016 season. The 2022 season is his seventh as a full-time member of the Stanford staff.
 
Reynolds succeeded Randy Hart, and served as a defensive assistant while working with Hart during the 2014 season, when the Cardinal ranked third nationally in total defense and tied for fifth among FBS squads by registering 46.0 sacks.

In 2020, junior Thomas Booker was named second team All-Pac-12 while fifth year Thomas Schaffer earned honorable mention. Booker totaled 21 tackles, three tackles for loss and a sack, while disruptive with two pass breakups and two blocked kicks. Schaffer, the first Austrian-born Power Five football player, shined in his final season under Reynolds, leading the team with four tackles for loss and three sacks. 

Booker was again named to the All-Pac-12 second team as a senior in 2021. 
 
Reynolds recently instructed defensive tackle Harrison Phillips throughout his Cardinal career, and the All-American was selected 96th overall by the Buffalo Bills in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Phillips was the fifth Stanford defensive lineman in as many seasons to be drafted. Phillips led Stanford in tackles with 103, the most of any defensive lineman in the nation. Among those 103 tackles were a team-best 17 for loss and 7.5 sacks, as well as two forced fumbles. He was a second-team All-America choice by the Football Writers Association of America, and the Associated Press voted him third-team All-America.
 
Phillips was also first-team all-conference and named a member of the America Football Coaches Association Good Works Team for his outstanding work in the community. He graduated two quarters early as a double major in science, technology and society, and sociology. Even more, he added a minor in education.
 
Reynolds also helped develop All-American Solomon Thomas into the third overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. Thomas, selected by the San Francisco 49ers, was the highest drafted Cardinal defensive player in program history. Thomas also won the Pac-12’s Morris Trophy, given to the league’s top lineman.
 
Reynolds’ pedigree includes more than a decade of coaching in the NFL with Indianapolis, Miami and Minnesota. He was the defensive line coach at Oklahoma in 2015, helping lead the Sooners to a Big 12 Title, College Football Playoff berth and an 11-2 record.
 
Reynolds came to The Farm in 2014 following five seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, where he served as an assistant defensive line coach. Reynolds worked with Brendan Daly and Karl Dunbar on the unit, with Minnesota leading the NFL with 50 sacks and 15 fumble recoveries in 2011.
 
He spent the 2007 season with the Miami Dolphins as a defensive line coach and spent five seasons in Indianapolis as a member of Tony Dungy’s coaching staff, where he served as a defensive quality control coach when the Colts won Super Bowl XLI. Reynolds worked alongside Colts defensive line coach John Teerlinck.
 
In 2001, Reynolds worked as a defensive tackles coach at Indiana. His first collegiate coaching experience came at his alma mater, Wake Forest, where he served as a graduate assistant in 1997-98 and outside linebackers coach from 1999-2000.
 
Reynolds began his coaching career in 1995 at Brookland-Cayce High School where he served as an assistant coach and strength and conditioning coach.
 
He earned four letters as a linebacker and special teams contributor at Wake Forest from 1990-93, graduating in 1994 with a degree in communication. He also earned a master’s degree in liberal studies from Wake Forest in 1999.

Reynolds is married to Emon and the couple has four children.