The Best: McBride Wins Mackey Award
Senior tight end becomes program's second major award winner
The goal was simple.
Trey McBride would return to Colorado State, intent on becoming a better player.
He nailed the task. And the best version of McBride just happens to make him the best tight end in the country, trumpeted by his selection as the 2021 John Mackey Award winner. He becomes just the second Ram to win a major individual award, joining the 1995 Jim Thorpe selection of Greg Myers.
“It’s special. Coming back, I could have never dreamed or thought this would happen,” McBride said through tears. “It’s very special, and there are so many people I can thank and go down the list. I just wanted to come back and be the best Trey I could possibly be. I had no clue that would mean I was the best in the country, but that’s very special.”
While the world found out Thursday night during The Home Depot College Football Awards show, Jerry Mackey, the nephew and godson of John Mackey who oversees the committee, wanted to make the moment very special for McBride.
So Wednesday night in the team room at Canvas Stadium, McBride sat down in front of cameras and lights to talk about his career. At the third question, a door opened up behind him, and when he turned around, his family and a few members of the coaching staff were approaching him. Shocked, his mother, Kate, added more.
“Trey, you’re the Mackey Award winner,” she said.
He bowed his head and started to cry. The next few minutes were a blur of applause, hugs and congratulations. Even more tears, which is how Jerry Mackey found McBride when he came on screen for a Zoom call.
Trey apologized to Jerry, who said he expected nothing less than the emotions on display.
“It is my responsibility to make sure the committee selects the right person,” Jerry started. “It’s not just playing on the football field, it’s also what you do off the field and all you do when the ball is not coming your way. We looked at all those things, and you checked all the boxes.”
It all became possible because Trey had boxes of his own.
In a shortened, 2020 season, he was simply a menace. He was a physical blocker at the point of attack, and smooth as a receiver. He led Colorado State with 22 receptions for 330 yards and four touchdowns. There is no question had he wanted to, Trey could have declared early for the NFL Draft and be playing on Sundays in 2021, but he also would have been a second- or third-day selection.
What that told him was he could be better. So he came back and went to work.
He worked with coaches in Fort Collins. He worked with former CSU and NFL tight end Joel Dreessen, another Fort Morgan success story. He lifted and ran to become bigger and stronger. He did everything he was asked, then he did some more.
It’s such a cool thing that I play the real position of tight end. I put my hand in the ground, I block, I’m the old-school tight end. That’s what I think is cool and unique about this is what I did, by being an old-school tight end and not be split out.Trey McBride
As you approach Fort Morgan driving east on Interstate 76, you will see a sign: Home of Glenn Miller. He was the king of the big-band era, and he had the first album which went platinum, though platinum records were not tracked in his day.
It is a throwback to another time, and when it comes to playing tight end, so too, is Trey.
Dreessen has known the McBride brothers – Trey and Toby – for some time. Coming from the same town, he reached out to Toby first when he was playing high school ball for the Mustangs, then he came to know Trey. They aren’t the first Fort Morgan kids he’s reached out to, but they are the two who jumped at the chance to glean whatever knowledge they could from a nine-year NFL veteran.
Damn straight they did. Growing up, one year all Trey wanted for Christmas was a No. 81 Dreessen Broncos jersey, which he received. Then his parents, Kate and Jen, sent it to Dreessen to autograph, which he did.
Trey still has the jersey. He also has some of his knowledge, which Dreessen was more than happy to share.
“I told them, whatever you need,” Dreessen said. “It was very important for me to be a mentor to these boys, because I know what it’s like to grow up in Fort Morgan, I know it can have its challenges. I wanted to be a resource for them.
“Trey just happened to play tight end, so we just naturally connected a little more with that. When Trey committed to Colorado State, I said let’s get to know each other, so for the last couple of summers he comes down, he brings his iPad, we spend the night watching film and we critique his game. This last summer, he was so much better than the summer before. He was that much stronger and his technique was that much more refined. We’d watch film and I’d put him through some drills and try to give him more tools in his tool box to help him on the line of scrimmage, to teach him how to drop his hips better at the top of routes and separate from man coverage, and the kid just absorbs it all. It’s touching, because I would see him go apply it in the games, and I’d be, that’s stuff I taught you and he’s using it. It moves me to tears.”
Dreessen held nothing back, not in workout sessions on his ranch, not in film study. And when Trey called him to break the news of the honor, they cried together.
When the season began, Trey put his goals behind those of his team, and the Rams very much needed him in every manner. As Jerry noted, it wasn’t what everybody saw Trey do, it was also the things he learned about the candidate behind the scenes.
It was about him being a good person in public and a good teammate, not just on game day, but during practice. Being a captain, he helped shape the tight end room at Colorado State.
“It made coming into work every day fun. We were both on a mission,” CSU tight ends coach Cody Booth said. “I could tell he was on a mission every day. It was fun to be around the work ethic, the drive. He wasn’t going to be satisfied. It was great for the team, great for him. I’m extremely proud of him.
“He’s very selfless. He understood what he needed to do. Being a team captain this year was great for him, just to keep improving his leadership. That made him a better player, putting the team in front of him. He didn’t’ worry about himself, just the team.”
Trey helped Cam Butler bounce back from two injury-riddled years. He helped Gary Williams become a factor in the offense after having not played much prior. The room was loaded, but Trey was king.
He posted numbers generally reserved for wide outs. His 90 receptions this season rank fourth in a single season, and his 1,121 yards rank eighth. He became the first Colorado State tight end to ever record a 1,000-yard season, and he did it while drawing double – even triple -- coverage. His yardage ranks as the fifth best season for an FBS tight end in history.
Still, he was stunned. Grateful. Humble.
“I’ve always known I was very good. I just wanted to play and do everything that game to help my team win, and that’s what I did,” Trey said. “I went into every game knowing I was going to be a factor in that game, and I just wanted to do everything I could do to help our team win. The coaches did a good job of getting me the ball, and everything just fell into place.”
McBride was stellar throughout his career. He leaves Colorado State as the most productive tight end in history, amassing 164 receptions for 2,100 yards and 10 touchdowns. His catches rank him seventh for a career, his yardage ranks ninth. He posted six 100-yard receiving games in 2021 (tied for second-best in a season by a CSU target), giving him eight such games in his career, which ranks sixth.
McBride was stellar throughout his career. He leaves Colorado State as the most productive tight end in history, amassing 164 receptions for 2,100 yards and 10 touchdowns. His catches rank him seventh for a career, his yardage ranks ninth. He posted six 100-yard receiving games in 2021 (tied for second-best in a season by a CSU target), giving him eight such games in his career, which ranks sixth.
And he did it with the biggest flex of all: He was a true tight end.
In this day and age of spread offenses, seeing a tight end at the line of scrimmage is becoming an anomaly. Of the three finalists for the Mackey Award, only Trey spend at least 50 percent of his plays attached to the line of scrimmage, not spread out wide. That’s where he was found 69.3 percent of the time.
He can block, and he does so with an attitude. He plays the game with passion, regardless of his assignment. He can call himself a tight end, and does so with pride.
“I think it’s very cool. I’m very unique,” he said. “I feel like I’m one of only true tight ends in this class. I’m very honored and excited. It’s such a cool thing that I play the real position of tight end. I put my hand in the ground, I block, I’m the old-school tight end. That’s what I think is cool and unique about this is what I did, by being an old-school tight end and not be split out.”
He didn’t split out on his team, or his career, either.
McBride could have exited stage left a year earlier and surely would have been a mid-round NFL Draft selection and collecting paychecks for his work on Sundays. But he bet on himself, that his good could be better, that his work ethic would carry him to another level.
It will also carry him to another round – quite possibly the first – with most draft experts tabbing him as the top tight end in the upcoming draft. That would mean another digit on his first contract, too.
He also had one more year to call Toby his teammate, not just his brother. They played together briefly in high school, but Trey considers it among the best part of his career they suited up for the same team for four seasons. Those memories could never be replaced.
Especially his final one. He loved Fort Collins and the people he met. He was grateful to both coaches he had – Mike Bobo and Steve Addazio – for giving him a chance to play and shine. He was proud to be a Ram, and his exit would be hard to forget.
He was done playing at halftime of the Nevada game, but he went back in for one more snap. A fake punt, and a 69-yard scamper down the sideline, complete with a brutal stiff arm to bury the last possible tackler into the Sonny Lubick Field turf.
Top that.
“Never in a million years, but I think it was the perfect ending to my career,” Trey said. “I was done for the game, but I went back in for that fake punt. It just so happens it’s a 69-yard touchdown. I think that’s something that’s very special. It was the end of my career, the last play I’ll ever have as a Ram and something I’ll remember forever.”
A storybook finish. Roll the credits, cue the applause.
Dreessen certainly was, the entire time.
“This is the stuff they make movies out of, and it couldn’t have happened to a better family, a better person,” he said. “I’m thrilled for him. The best tight end in the nation. Like, all college football. I don’t give a crap what conference you play in, this man is the best tight end in college football. It’s a remarkable thing to happen for him and for Colorado State, and I’m so excited for him.”
All of it stemming from one basic goal: To be better.
Which just happened to make him better than everybody else.