McBride An All-American by Unanimous Decision

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Records are broken. Accomplishments matched.

Those Trey McBride has in his possession as he leaves Colorado State once belonged to somebody else. Possibly, somewhere down the road, they will belong to somebody else. It may not seem likely, but it's possible.

Every day the past few weeks has given McBride something new to smile about. He was All-Mountain West again, and a few days later came another ultimate tip of the cap when he was named the 2021 John Mackey Award winner as the nation's top tight end.

Meanwhile, he was finding his name on All-American lists, day after day. Each day, the Fort Morgan kid felt more and more blessed.

He hasn't yet had time to fully grasp what all of it means, not yet anyway, and Wednesday gave him one more honor to contemplate, and this one, well, it's all his, all alone, and nobody can ever take it away from him.

With his selection as an AFCA first-team All-American, McBride becomes the first Ram to ever be a unanimous All-American. The program has had four consensus All-Americans – Mike Bell (1978), Greg Myers (1995), Rashard Higgins (2014) and Michael Gallup (2017) – all because each of them was named to at least three of the five major All-American teams.

For all of them, somewhere along the line, the AFCA, Walter Camp, AP, The Sporting News or the Football Writers Association went with somebody else. This year, it was clear Trey McBride was unquestionably the best tight end.

He (and San Diego State punter Matt Araiza) became the fourth and fifth players in Mountain West history to become unanimous All-American's, joining Phillip Thomas (Fresno State, 2012); Jerry Hughes (TCU, 2009) and Brian Urlacher (New Mexico, 1999).

McBride didn't really know what to think when he was told the enormity of the honor he had just achieved.

"That's very special, and to be the first in program history is such an honor," he said. "I am just so grateful for this university and the coaches who helped me get to this spot. This is so special, and something that will be in the history books forever.

"It's all come at me so fast. It hasn't all sunk in yet, but when it does, it will be a special moment. I was so honored to play here. I'm just glad I could give it back."

He stood on the Canvas Stadium turf on Tuesday morning – naturally after a workout – and gazed up at the front of the suites. There are three names and numbers spread across the front.

No. 3 Greg Myers. No. 48 Fum McGraw. No. 21 Eddie Hanna. Told it's no stretch of the imagination his could one day join them, McBride wondered. Again, one more thing to come to terms with later down the line for a player's whose history which is far from being fully told.

So much of his story is amazing. Start with his season, the 90 receptions for 1,121 yards and one touchdown. Those are wide receiver numbers from a tight end, and not a new-age one. No, McBride is a throwback, putting his hand and the ground and taking 70 percent of his snaps attached to the line of scrimmage.

It is rare, and so is he. His season was the best ever for a tight end at Colorado State, and his yardage was the fifth most at the position in FBS history. His 164 catches for 2,100 yards are career bests for a Rams' tight end, too.

But he did it for a team which went 3-9 on the year, and during awards seasons, sometimes they get brushed to the side. He only had one touchdown, playing in an offense which valued him more between the 20s than it did in the red zone. But he was so dominant, so complete, his play could not be ignored.

Ryan Stonehouse saw it every day. He couldn't ignore what was coming when McBride scored his first career touchdown, a 48-yard in The Swamp against Florida. To the fellow All-American, it was proof no stage, no moment, would be too big for the young player.

What happened on game day was no accident, according to Stonehouse. There was a drive in McBride which he considers rare. Teammates once put pictures side-by-side of McBride making a one-handed catch in the game, then they found a basically identical one from practice.

The amazing was part of his daily routine, and when he was on the field, you want to pay particular attention.

"You can just tell when guys are going to break out," Stonehouse said. "No stage was ever too big. When you see guys perform at that level, there's almost no doubt he's going to be special and have a really good career.

"What makes Trey who he is … I'm going to use the word unstoppable. The fact he's able to go on the field and be one of the best players on the field at all times, it puts a certain pressure on the other team. It's an unspoken type of presence that you have, and Trey has that. That's what you get with him on the field. Trey is out there, pay attention and your game has to elevate. That's what makes a player special. They elevate the game around them. He doesn't have to elevate the game, it elevates around him."

This season was a product of who McBride has always been. He's never been short on confidence; you can't play at the level he does and have doubts. He's also never been shy to self-reflect, and the response he found each day was to get better.

Run a better route. Get stronger. Improve as a blocker. Run faster. See and understand more. Development is constant, and now it's time to pivot.

His career at Colorado State is now over, but the game of football is not. He will prepare for the upcoming NFL Draft, where some have him projected as a first-round selection, as he did for this season. He will head to Arizona in early January to start working with EXOS to prepare for the Senior Bowl, the NFL Combine and any pro-day workouts he needs to be at.

He will do so with the same mindset, and he's excited about what will be next and what is new.

"I'm extremely excited and eager," McBride said. "I'm ready to go and start the next chapter of my life, and that means training and doing everything I can to make sure my body is in the best possible shape to perform and do as well as I can at the combine and things like that, because that's where I need to be at my best."

He played all year with bumps and bruises, even a hand injury which he wouldn't allow his ability to snag a ball out of midair. And while some players are stunned at the next level of training, McBride is not. He worked as hard as he was told to work, figuring somewhere down the road somebody would show him how to work smarter and harder.

He's now hit that fork in the road. But that's always been him.

He hasn't measured himself with awards or accolades, just against himself.

"I think what it was, every day trying to be better than I was the day before. I was always striving for greatness and never really settling where you're at," he said. "I've had good seasons, but I always wanted to do better and do more than what I did the year before. That's something I carry with me, is I just want to be better every day and ultimately, it becomes an All-American. That's' special and so cool."

The NFL is the next step, the one he's eager to climb. And he'll do that from a position no other Colorado State player has come from before.

As the best at his position. No question.

Unanimously.

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