Coleman connection: Player, his father share connection to Arizona State line coach

When Diron Reynolds hears a certain voice coming down the hall of the Arizona State football facility, he starts having flashbacks. The voice belongs to veteran offensive lineman Ben Coleman. There is a reason it sounds so familiar and it has everything to do with a long-standing connection between Coleman and Reynolds, who was named the Sun Devils defensive line coach in December.

That connection is Coleman's father, Ben Sr. The elder Coleman and Reynolds knew each other long before little Ben was born. They played together at Wake Forest for four years. Not only were they teammates, but they were roommates — and eventually part of each other's weddings.

Even after the two parted ways, they stayed in touch. So it was a full circle moment when Reynolds showed up in Tempe as part of Kenny Dillingham's coaching staff.

"It's a big community but also a small community," Reynolds said of football. "Coaching-wise, player-wise. When you play with guys and then they have sons and they're playing football, you're bound to cross paths again."

Reynolds, 53, came to ASU after serving in the same capacity at Michigan State. After he took the job in Tempe, he stayed with the Coleman family while looking for a place to live. Coleman even loaned him a vehicle.

"He's family," Ben Coleman said. "I was excited to have him around again. We picked right up where we left off."

The younger Coleman is in his second year with the Sun Devils, although an Achilles injury sustained upon his arrival sidelined him for the 2023 campaign. This season he has started all five games at left guard for ASU (4-1, 1-1) which faces Big 12 favorite Utah (4-1, 1-1) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Mountain America Stadium.

Ben Coleman (6-foot-3, 325 pounds) has allowed just one quarterback pressure, tied for the third-fewest among all FBS guards with at least 100 pass block snaps. He's also helped pave the way for an ASU rushing offense that ranks 16th nationally (218.2 ypg).

Before coming to ASU, Ben Coleman attended California, playing in 25 games and starting in 22. One of Reynolds' previous stops was at Stanford, Cal's biggest rival and a school just 45 minutes away. Coleman and Reynolds found time to touch base either before or after the teams squared off. Their families got together for Thanksgiving.

"He sounds just like him," Reynolds says, comparing the player to his father. "His mannerisms are the same. Same sense of humor. He's exactly like his dad. I see him, I'm seeing his dad. He might even be a little wittier because he gets some of that from his mother too."

Reynolds never made it to the NFL as a player, although he did so as a coach. He spent the 2007 season with the Miami Dolphins as a defensive line coach. For the five years before that, Reynolds worked under Tony Dungy at Indianapolis, serving as defensive quality control coach.

He still spends a good portion of the offseason working with NFL players.

Ben Coleman Sr., now 53, did make it to the ultimate level as an athlete, playing in 135 NFL games with 104 starts during nine seasons in the league with Arizona, Jacksonville, San Diego, and Washington. Another full circle moment came when Coleman and wife, Krista, moved to Chandler when their son decided to play at ASU. Ben Sr. was taken in the second round of the 1993 NFL Draft with the No. 32 overall selection by the Cardinals. At that time, the Cardinals played their home games at the then-Sun Devil Stadium.

Despite having played in the NFL, Coleman does not feel the need to interject himself into his son's college experience. While he attends games, he doesn't sit in on practices and when his son calls to talk to him, it's usually more about off-the-field topics.

Coleman was on the coaching staff of his son's high school, Linfield Christian (California), but he was not the head coach or his position coach.

"I don't need to live vicariously through my son because I did that," said Ben Coleman Sr., who started his career as a defensive lineman and then moved to the offensive line midway through his collegiate career. "He needs to have his own experience. That is part of his whole growth both as a player and as a person."

He also maintains a hands-off approach because he trusts the ASU coach staff, including offensive line coach Saga Tuitele.

"He has never been a helicopter parent," Ben Jr. said. "A lot of players' parents are maybe because they didn't live the dream so it's cool he did have that dream and experienced it. Of course, he is instrumental in everything I'm doing but as far as day-to-day stuff, it's more about life than football. He knows I'm getting coached on technique all day long. I call him, it is mostly about other stuff."

While Coleman still has a year of eligibility left after this season. He received his undergraduate degree in media studies from Cal and already earned a master's from ASU in communications. He's now working on a second master's, this one in digital marketing.

Coleman, who has two older sisters, is pushing his father to go back and finish his degree because he didn't get a chance to do that before he got drafted.

"Yes, that comes up a lot. That's one he has on me," the elder Coleman laughed.

Coleman and center Leif Fautanu are leaders of an improved offensive line. Coleman said he learned a lot in the year he was off the field and focused on mentoring the younger players.

"I've been through games, had big moments, failed at big moments so I think it was about taking those moments and that experience and giving to the younger guys," he said. "With the transfer portal, you have guys who played, maybe guys for other teams who didn't play a lot. We have JuCo guys that had not played at this level so I tried to mentor them, pull guys aside when I needed to. Be a friend, of course a teammate too, sometimes they just needed someone to be there for them."

Tuitele says his player is completely healthy and while he's been one of the best players in the unit, he has also been a respected leader.

"He's not just a physical kid that can move; he's got a high IQ so he's able to come up with solutions and solve problems when he's out there," Tuitele said. "When you have a high IQ and you understand what to do and how to do it, then you can help out. With the wealth of experience he has and being able to pick up our system, not just knowing what to do but how to do it is impressive and he does a good job of relaying that to the younger guys in a way they can understand it, a little slower sometimes. Sometimes when I bark at anybody, he's there with, `What coach is saying is blah blah blah.' So it's good for information but it's good to have an older guy that's been around me that can translate what I'm telling them."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Coleman connection: Player, his father share connection to Arizona State line coach