Goochland football’s Reid Chenault isn’t going to have to travel far to play football at the next level. Chenault is headed to the University of Richmond as an invited walk-on.
The senior found Richmond to be a perfect blend of football and academics as Chenault is nearly as accomplished in the classroom as he is on the football field.
“I’m thrilled, it doesn’t really get much better in the state of Virginia in my eyes,” Chenault said. “I’ve had cousins go there and tell me what (that education) gives back to you.”
Chenault has been a fixture behind center for years at Goochland. As a freshman in 2012, Chenault split time with then-sophomore Jordan Jefferson. He earned Scrimmage Play’s newcomer of the year award as the Bulldogs won a state title with Chenault making all kinds of noise in a breakout year.
Since then, except when injured, Chenault has been Goochland’s quarterback, with his swan song coming this fall as the Bulldogs went 8-4 against a challenging schedule and fell in the second round of the playoffs in a nailbiter in Greensville. He threw for 4,472 yards and has completed 51.3 percent of this throws in his four years. He also threw for 56 career touchdowns, and all that production came in an offense that’s designed to run the ball and control the clock, the Bulldogs’ vaunted Wing-T.
That production and his sterling academic record helped him earn the Bill Dudley Foundation Scholarship.
He’s also got a diverse set of skills as he was an all-state punter and served as longsnapper early in his career. He’s also shown the capacity to play defensive back, but that hasn’t come up much on the recruiting trail.
“It hasn’t as much as I’d think it would,” Chenault said. “It’s been a long time but I don’t think I’ve lost (the ability to long snap) yet and I’m always willing to do anything to get on the field.”
For now though the plan is quarterback at Richmond and the fact that the Spiders were pretty specific about that part of the process separated them from the pack of other schools who were clamoring for Chenault’s services.
“One of the things that made Richmond stand out is that even though it is a preferred walk-on, they seem to have a plan for me,” Chenault said.
As he’s shown the last four years at Goochland, Chenault is pretty good at executing plans. Now he’ll get the chance to try and do it at the next level.
