CHAMPAIGN — If you would’ve told Caleb Reams he’d end his collegiate career starting at wide receiver for a bowl-bound Illinois team under the direction of Lovie Smith, he may have laughed in your face.
“I thought Tim Beckman was still going to be the head coach and that I’d be playing fullback,” Reams said. “There’s been a lot of things that have changed. I think everything happens for a reason, so it’s amazing to see this all come out.”
Reams committed to Beckman as a tight end in the Class of 2015 but never played a game for him as Beckman was fired a week prior to Reams' first season. After his redshirt season under interim coach Bill Cubit, Reams decided to stay at Illinois under Smith — year after year, despite watching many of his teammates and classmates transferring out of the program.
On Saturday, Reams will be one of six remaining Beckman signees and fifth-year seniors to be honored before the Illinois football (6-5, 4-4 Big Ten) regular-season finale against Northwestern (2-9, 0-8 Big Ten).
“It’s a whole bunch of hard-working guys,” Reams said. “I think that we’re probably the closest group on the team. The good old-fashioned Beck Boys, as we call. It’s really cool, man. It’s really cool to have that brotherhood because a lot of those guys left. I don’t hold that against them. That’s their decision. I know they’re making business decisions as well. But I knew I wanted to stay here not only because I wanted to see this thing through, but the education and getting a degree from here is amazing. And I’m going to be leaving here with two.”
Reams has never played a starring role for Illinois, but the 6-foot-2, 230-pound wideout has been a program/glue guy who has filled whatever hole the program needs. He began his career at tight end but moved to wideout midway through his sophomore season.
Reams has started six of the 32 games he’s played, has 15 career receptions for 150 yards and one touchdown and has been one of the Illini’s best blocking receivers. After missing the first seven games of the season due to injury, Reams was a big contributor in the Illini’s epic comeback at Michigan State this season, catching two passes for 31 yards and drawing a game-extending pass interference in the end zone to extend the game and set up the game-winning score.
But Reams points back toward a true freshman’s hustle play as the key to this turnaround season: Devon Witherspoon’s chase-down tackle that helped turn the tide in a 24-23 win over No. 6 Wisconsin, which started a four-game win streak to seal the program’s first bowl bid since 2014.
“We knew that we were a good team coming into this year,” Reams said. “We wanted to be able to put that on the field. After some things happened, we finally got to put it on the field. Honestly, I want to thank ‘Spoon, because if that play didn’t happen against Wisconsin, I don’t know where we’d be.”
Reams’ collegiate career didn’t go the way he planned. But he’s happy with how it turned out.
“It’s probably changed my life, honestly,” Reams said. “I really didn’t know what hard work was, I feel like. Obviously my dad and mom and Coach Mac over at Warren and a few other people they taught me hard work and everything like that. But I guess I never really had to apply it until here. It really taught me you always have to work hard. There’s no substitute for hard work. It’s been amazing. It really taught me a lot of patience as well because it was tough, but it’s amazing to see this come out.”
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November 29, 2019 at 11:48AM
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Senior Spotlight: Caleb Reams 'wanted to see this thing through' - 247Sports
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