On the morning of the biggest day of his life, Riley Reiff stopped by his old high school in Parkston, S.D., population 1,508, to remind himself where he came from and tell a couple of hundred students who look up to him where they can go.
Quiet and introverted, Reiff spoke for about 10 minutes to the entire Parkston school district student body, encouraging students to pursue their dreams in a speech counselor Jim Akre said resonated with everyone who heard it.
"It just means so much to our kids," Akre said. "When you grow up in a place like this, it's hard to connect to celebrity and to that level of success, and so I think it gives them all a little bit of hope inside."
When he was done, Reiff autographed some of the apparel he got at the NFL combine and handed it out to special-needs kids in the audience, then retreated nervously to his home where he couldn't bring himself to watch the draft.
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A projected high first-round pick, Reiff slipped to 23 -- where the Lions jumped at the chance to take a potential cornerstone of future offensive lines, casting him into the spotlight again.
Reiff left the small family get-together at his Parkston home and dropped by his uncle's tavern, Boog's Bar, where he did a couple of interviews with the local TV stations and said thanks to the more than 200 people who crammed into the restaurant, some staking out tables as early as 2 p.m. to celebrate his big day.
"I take pride coming from South Dakota," Reiff said Friday at his introductory news conference in Detroit. "The people there, Parkston, S.D., I decided to celebrate this moment with them, with my family. And I had a blast. It was a great time (Thursday) night, and I'm very thankful the Detroit Lions drafted me."
Full speed ahead
The videotape came unsolicited and somehow made its way to Reese Morgan's hands, and when the former Iowa offensive line coach popped it in six years ago he was intrigued by what he saw.
Reiff was a little-known, big-bodied sophomore from South Dakota then who moved well enough and played physical enough to get on the Hawkeyes' recruiting radar.
Morgan made a few phone calls, and when he learned Reiff doubled as a state-championship wrestler, he figured it was time to visit Parkston High.
"I remember the first time going to wrestling practice and they didn't have enough guys to wrestle, so he's kind of wrestling the coach or whoever," said Morgan, who now coaches Iowa's defensive line. "Then they're doing conditioning at the end and the guy is outrunning everybody there in a little bitty wrestling room, and he's just running back and forth, just he won't lose. These younger guys are probably faster than him and quicker, and he just finds a way to win.
"The thing I liked about him, he's so tough, he's so competitive, and he's such a hard worker."
Reiff eventually signed with the Hawkeyes after a protracted recruiting battle -- he was set to go to Nebraska, but reconsidered when Bill Callahan was fired -- and four years later is the next in a long line of pro-ready Iowa linemen.
Like Bryan Bulaga, Marshal Yanda, Eric Steinbach and others before him, Reiff has the potential to start as a rookie even though he joins a Lions offensive line that returns all five of its starters for a third season together.
Where he'll play remains to be seen -- Lions coach Jim Schwartz called him a left tackle; some scouts think he's better suited for the right side -- but Reiff started games for Iowa at both tackle spots and left guard, and he manned the crucial left-tackle position the past two years.
He still has some rawness to his game. He was a tight end and defensive lineman in high school, and Bulaga, now the starting right tackle for the Packers, was stronger at the same stage of their careers.
But Reiff is more athletic and competitive than most of his Hawkeye predecessors, and driven to succeed.
"We do the same drills year-round during his career, and he would go as hard as he possibly could every drill," Morgan said. "He doesn't know any other way to go. Usually you think, 'OK, this guy's getting towards the end of his career, maybe he's going to (slow down).' But he just goes as absolute hard as he can.
"He never wants to be outworked. He's extremely tough. You watch tape of him, he likes to finish in the run game. ... He still has a lot of work to do with his pass pro and some other things, but just a great, great young man."
Reiff's parents, Tom, a retired teacher and coach who still drives a grain truck around town, and Jo, a hairstylist, and others who know him from Parkston said Reiff always has been self-motivated.
Tom Reiff said Riley sometimes writes words of wisdom to himself in tiny type on sheets of paper his wife finds around the house.
"Just, 'Do your best. Don't ever look back,' " Tom Reiff said. "He's had these steps in mind."
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Akre said the two spent a lot of time talking about the responsibilities that come with success once college recruiters started descending on the school.
One day, Akre went to school to get some work in on a snow day and wound up fielding calls from Notre Dame, Stanford and Florida.
"I remember him saying to me one time, he said, 'Do you think I can play at that level?' " Akre said. "So I think there was some watershed moments there when all of a sudden maybe the things you dream about as a little kid, they become a possibility."
As a wrestler, Reiff went 121-1 with three state championships and would have won a fourth if he hadn't suffered a wrist injury and undergone surgery as a senior. Reiff said his only loss came as a freshman against a good friend who moved up a weight class to wrestle him.
"I wish I could get that one back," he said. "It pushed me quite a bit. If you lose in a wrestling match, there's not much you can do on the mat without embarrassing yourself, but it motivated me to work harder and put in more time."
Hard work never has been an issue for Reiff, who helped his father build their house when he was 9 and began working as a mason with his uncle in sixth grade.
In high school, Reiff worked for a handful of construction and restoration companies while participating in football, wrestling, golf and track -- he was the state's Gatorade player of the year in football as a senior -- and Morgan said he was one of Iowa's most consistent and dedicated players during his four years there.
"I don't think you'll find anybody that will outwork him," Morgan said. "There might be guys that are better, more talented, but I think he's going to come to work every day with the idea of trying to improve. I don't think he's going to accept ever getting beat or anything like that 'cause that just isn't his makeup."
Reiff agonized over the decision to leave Iowa with a year of eligibility remaining. When he finally opted for the NFL days after the Hawkeyes' Insight Bowl loss to Oklahoma, he hopped in his truck and drove 6 hours to Iowa City, Iowa, to tell coaches and teammates of his decision.
"Riley is not a big emotional guy," Morgan said. "He's a pretty stoic and quiet and humble guy, and he came into my office, and he just broke down 'cause he felt so appreciative of his opportunity to be there. He said, 'Coach, I can't thank you enough.'
"All's he had to do was text or pick up the phone. That's all the coach wanted, but he wanted to come, do it the right way 'cause it was hard for him to say it was over. But that's what makes him special."
And that sincerity always will endear Reiff to the people of Parkston.
On Friday morning with students still buzzing about the draft, Akre tweeted half-jokingly that Parkston was considering changing its school colors from blue and orange to Honolulu blue and orange.
And Parkston mayor Dave Hoffman said the town, which used to be a split between Vikings and Broncos fans, will lean heavily toward Lions now.
"He's going to be an idol figure for these kids," Hoffman said. "Everybody knows him, and everybody looks up to him. He's one of those kids that's going to come back. He's going to come back and visit the community. Let's put it this way, we'll start seeing a lot of Detroit Lions T-shirts, jerseys and stuff like that."
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