“Fate” Brings Adams And McGary Together On UW’s Vaunted Offensive Line
September 05, 2017 | Football
By Scott Johnson
Trey Adams and Kaleb McGary weren't old enough to spell the word Pasadena – much less, Tuiasosopo – the last time the University of Washington football program played in a Rose Bowl.
And when it comes to the glory days of UW football, that last national title might as well have come in 1891 as far as Adams and McGary were concerned. Born in 1997 and 1995, respectively, the two massive offensive linemen didn't see much football success while growing up in the state of Washington.
So bringing UW to the brink of a national championship game last season was especially satisfying to the Evergreen-sized homegrown talents who flank the Huskies' seasoned offensive line.
"It's tremendous," said McGary, a 6-foot-7, 318-pound junior offensive tackle from Fife. "Not that I'm a limelight guy or anything – I'm the right tackle – but you kind of feel like you might one day be considered one of the guys that helped turned this thing around. You were part of the group that flipped things around and brought Husky football back to the map."
Deciding to play football at the University of Washington has worked out for both junior linemen, who have not only helped rejuvenate the Husky football program but have also grown close off the field.
Having grown up within Washington borders, McGary and Adams have a pretty good appreciation for how far UW has come to get back on top. Both grew up with parents who were Husky fans, during an era when supporting UW football was a labor of love.
McGary did not grow up much of a football fan and was just five years old when UW beat Purdue in the 2001 Rose Bowl, but he had a pretty good idea of what it must have been like to support UW football during the first decade of the 21st Century.
"I would imagine," he said, "it was kind of rough."
The 6-foot-8, 327-pound Adams, a Wenatchee native who was barely out of diapers (probably XXL diapers) when UW last played in a Rose Bowl, had more of a first-hand experience. He grew up rooting for the Huskies and was a devoted fan despite the program's fall from grace in the early part of the 21st Century. Adams suffered through the dog days of Dawgs football during his junior high years but never wavered in his fandom.
"Jake Locker is my favorite player – ever," said Adams, who committed to then-UW coach Steve Sarkisian during his sophomore year at Wenatchee High School. "I've always been a Dawg."
The decision to commit to playing football at UW has paid off for Adams and McGary -- and for their families. Since the gargantuan duo starting suiting up for games, the Huskies have gone 19-8 and played in two bowl games, including last season's national semifinal. This from a program that won just 12 games between 2004 and 2008 and didn't play in a single postseason game for most of Adams and McGary's elementary school and junior-high years.
The two-year ride has been good for both in-state products, but it's been especially rewarding for their Husky-rooting families.
"I'm sure it was fun," Adams said of his family's experience watching UW football last season. "I had a lot of people rooting for us, a lot of people rooting for me. You don't get those kinds of seasons too often."
UW's massive offensive tackles have a lot of people rooting for them not just because of their local ties but also because they've been a huge part – literally – of this program's success. Adams and McGary have started a combined 43 games over their first two seasons playing at UW. Having that kind of experience back will be a huge boon for the Huskies' offense.
"Obviously, there's no substitute for experience," offensive line coach Scott Huff said. "You've got to have some."
McGary, who underwent a heart procedure in high school that allowed him to continue playing football, said the experience he has of being a starter since the middle of his redshirt freshman year has made him a better player.
"You can educate yourself all you want, but until you go out and do it -- until you have that competitive aspect and that experience -- you never truly learn how to react, what to react to," he said. "The more experience, the better. After three years, I can say I'm a veteran now. I've been there, done that, and I have the experience in this program."
Adams has even more playing time under his belt than McGary, having taken over as a starter four games into his true freshman season. He is generally regarded as a legitimate NFL prospect who currently projects as an early-round pick next spring if he comes out early.
"I'm not too worried about the NFL right now," Adams said in August. "I'm just worried about this team, worried about making the o-line better. I'm worried about tomorrow's practice. I'm worried about, 'What am I eating for dinner?'"
Experience is one thing, but natural gifts are almost as important when it comes to the offensive line. Having a pair of bookend tackles who each exceed 6-foot-7 and weigh more than 300 pounds is a big advantage for any college football team.
"They're so big that sometimes I get lost," running back Myles Gaskin said, shaking his head. "I'll be looking at the play, and one of them will step in front of me, and I can't see anything.
"But at the end of the day, it's a blessing. It's a blessing to everyone. Those guys make it happen."
UW has had plenty of homegrown trees up front over the years, but that doesn't always translate to offensive success.
"Size is one thing," said Huff, the Huskies' offensive line coach, "but when you have guys who can move like that, it's very impressive."
Size and athleticism aren't all that McGary and Adams have in common. They're also avid outdoorsmen who grew up in rural areas and like to hunt and fish. Adams sees himself as a country boy who just happened to be an all-state player fielding offers from NCAA powerhouses like Oregon and USC. McGary, who actually grew up on a farm alongside more than 70 acres of unoccupied land in a small, Southern Washington town called Amboy, before moving to Fife in high school, took a liking to Adams pretty quickly.
"We're real good friends," Adams said. "We're similar in mindset, similar in what we do off the field. We both like the outdoors, we like to have fun.
"I think he's a great counterpart to me. We're similar body types, similar players. So it's been fun to grow with him, fun to work out with him. Great guy."
McGary said that he actually met Adams for the first time at a Northwest Elite football camp in Mercer Island. At the time, they didn't know anything about each other.
"We pretty much met up here (at UW), got to talking, and we were very similar people," said McGary, who drew recruiting interest from as far away as Wisconsin and Florida State while playing at Fife High School, a few miles due east of Tacoma. "It just kind of worked out, I guess. Fate."
Adams and McGary have already achieved a common goal in that they've brought UW football back onto the national map. Now they're trying to take the next step and deliver a national championship – something that no Huskies team has done in their lifetime.
Getting there might take a win over Alabama, which last year knocked UW off its title path in impressive fashion. The Crimson Tide's 24-7 win over the Huskies was a pretty one-sided affair, but both players saw some positive signs from that game.
"We can play with anybody," Adams said. "Obviously, we lost. But scheme-wise, preparation-wise, we know what we've got to do to get back there, and we know what we've got to do to win. It was a good experience."
"I think they were a good team," added McGary, "but I do not think that they were a level to where we believed. They were the better team on that day, and they deserved to move on; we didn't. But I think we could have just as easily beaten them as they did us.
"I think we, specifically the o-line, I think we did great. I'd put my boys up against them any day of the week."
McGary and his "boys" have formed quite a bond since he arrived at UW, particularly when it comes to Adams. Neither player has looked back on his decision to play for the home-state Huskies, and the UW football fans are pretty glad to have them.
"I committed two days after I got offered here, and I never looked back," Adams said. "It's the best decision of my life, and I'm happy to be doing this stuff."
Having led a dormant football program back to brink of national title, a place UW had never been in their lifetime, the friends and junior teammates are glad they decided to stay close to home.
"This is where I wanted to be," McGary said. "And it's the best choice I've made."
Scott Johnson is a Seattle-based author whose first book, a biography on basketball pioneer Forrest "Phog" Allen, was published by University of Nebraska Press in the fall of 2016.
Trey Adams and Kaleb McGary weren't old enough to spell the word Pasadena – much less, Tuiasosopo – the last time the University of Washington football program played in a Rose Bowl.
And when it comes to the glory days of UW football, that last national title might as well have come in 1891 as far as Adams and McGary were concerned. Born in 1997 and 1995, respectively, the two massive offensive linemen didn't see much football success while growing up in the state of Washington.
So bringing UW to the brink of a national championship game last season was especially satisfying to the Evergreen-sized homegrown talents who flank the Huskies' seasoned offensive line.
"It's tremendous," said McGary, a 6-foot-7, 318-pound junior offensive tackle from Fife. "Not that I'm a limelight guy or anything – I'm the right tackle – but you kind of feel like you might one day be considered one of the guys that helped turned this thing around. You were part of the group that flipped things around and brought Husky football back to the map."
Deciding to play football at the University of Washington has worked out for both junior linemen, who have not only helped rejuvenate the Husky football program but have also grown close off the field.
Having grown up within Washington borders, McGary and Adams have a pretty good appreciation for how far UW has come to get back on top. Both grew up with parents who were Husky fans, during an era when supporting UW football was a labor of love.
McGary did not grow up much of a football fan and was just five years old when UW beat Purdue in the 2001 Rose Bowl, but he had a pretty good idea of what it must have been like to support UW football during the first decade of the 21st Century.
"I would imagine," he said, "it was kind of rough."
The 6-foot-8, 327-pound Adams, a Wenatchee native who was barely out of diapers (probably XXL diapers) when UW last played in a Rose Bowl, had more of a first-hand experience. He grew up rooting for the Huskies and was a devoted fan despite the program's fall from grace in the early part of the 21st Century. Adams suffered through the dog days of Dawgs football during his junior high years but never wavered in his fandom.
"Jake Locker is my favorite player – ever," said Adams, who committed to then-UW coach Steve Sarkisian during his sophomore year at Wenatchee High School. "I've always been a Dawg."
The decision to commit to playing football at UW has paid off for Adams and McGary -- and for their families. Since the gargantuan duo starting suiting up for games, the Huskies have gone 19-8 and played in two bowl games, including last season's national semifinal. This from a program that won just 12 games between 2004 and 2008 and didn't play in a single postseason game for most of Adams and McGary's elementary school and junior-high years.
The two-year ride has been good for both in-state products, but it's been especially rewarding for their Husky-rooting families.
"I'm sure it was fun," Adams said of his family's experience watching UW football last season. "I had a lot of people rooting for us, a lot of people rooting for me. You don't get those kinds of seasons too often."
UW's massive offensive tackles have a lot of people rooting for them not just because of their local ties but also because they've been a huge part – literally – of this program's success. Adams and McGary have started a combined 43 games over their first two seasons playing at UW. Having that kind of experience back will be a huge boon for the Huskies' offense.
"Obviously, there's no substitute for experience," offensive line coach Scott Huff said. "You've got to have some."
McGary, who underwent a heart procedure in high school that allowed him to continue playing football, said the experience he has of being a starter since the middle of his redshirt freshman year has made him a better player.
"You can educate yourself all you want, but until you go out and do it -- until you have that competitive aspect and that experience -- you never truly learn how to react, what to react to," he said. "The more experience, the better. After three years, I can say I'm a veteran now. I've been there, done that, and I have the experience in this program."
Adams has even more playing time under his belt than McGary, having taken over as a starter four games into his true freshman season. He is generally regarded as a legitimate NFL prospect who currently projects as an early-round pick next spring if he comes out early.
"I'm not too worried about the NFL right now," Adams said in August. "I'm just worried about this team, worried about making the o-line better. I'm worried about tomorrow's practice. I'm worried about, 'What am I eating for dinner?'"
Experience is one thing, but natural gifts are almost as important when it comes to the offensive line. Having a pair of bookend tackles who each exceed 6-foot-7 and weigh more than 300 pounds is a big advantage for any college football team.
"They're so big that sometimes I get lost," running back Myles Gaskin said, shaking his head. "I'll be looking at the play, and one of them will step in front of me, and I can't see anything.
"But at the end of the day, it's a blessing. It's a blessing to everyone. Those guys make it happen."
UW has had plenty of homegrown trees up front over the years, but that doesn't always translate to offensive success.
"Size is one thing," said Huff, the Huskies' offensive line coach, "but when you have guys who can move like that, it's very impressive."
Size and athleticism aren't all that McGary and Adams have in common. They're also avid outdoorsmen who grew up in rural areas and like to hunt and fish. Adams sees himself as a country boy who just happened to be an all-state player fielding offers from NCAA powerhouses like Oregon and USC. McGary, who actually grew up on a farm alongside more than 70 acres of unoccupied land in a small, Southern Washington town called Amboy, before moving to Fife in high school, took a liking to Adams pretty quickly.
"We're real good friends," Adams said. "We're similar in mindset, similar in what we do off the field. We both like the outdoors, we like to have fun.
"I think he's a great counterpart to me. We're similar body types, similar players. So it's been fun to grow with him, fun to work out with him. Great guy."
McGary said that he actually met Adams for the first time at a Northwest Elite football camp in Mercer Island. At the time, they didn't know anything about each other.
"We pretty much met up here (at UW), got to talking, and we were very similar people," said McGary, who drew recruiting interest from as far away as Wisconsin and Florida State while playing at Fife High School, a few miles due east of Tacoma. "It just kind of worked out, I guess. Fate."
Adams and McGary have already achieved a common goal in that they've brought UW football back onto the national map. Now they're trying to take the next step and deliver a national championship – something that no Huskies team has done in their lifetime.
Getting there might take a win over Alabama, which last year knocked UW off its title path in impressive fashion. The Crimson Tide's 24-7 win over the Huskies was a pretty one-sided affair, but both players saw some positive signs from that game.
"We can play with anybody," Adams said. "Obviously, we lost. But scheme-wise, preparation-wise, we know what we've got to do to get back there, and we know what we've got to do to win. It was a good experience."
"I think they were a good team," added McGary, "but I do not think that they were a level to where we believed. They were the better team on that day, and they deserved to move on; we didn't. But I think we could have just as easily beaten them as they did us.
"I think we, specifically the o-line, I think we did great. I'd put my boys up against them any day of the week."
McGary and his "boys" have formed quite a bond since he arrived at UW, particularly when it comes to Adams. Neither player has looked back on his decision to play for the home-state Huskies, and the UW football fans are pretty glad to have them.
"I committed two days after I got offered here, and I never looked back," Adams said. "It's the best decision of my life, and I'm happy to be doing this stuff."
Having led a dormant football program back to brink of national title, a place UW had never been in their lifetime, the friends and junior teammates are glad they decided to stay close to home.
"This is where I wanted to be," McGary said. "And it's the best choice I've made."
Scott Johnson is a Seattle-based author whose first book, a biography on basketball pioneer Forrest "Phog" Allen, was published by University of Nebraska Press in the fall of 2016.
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