Game Day

THE TRANSFER ALSO RISES: Articulate McCullouch leads through communication

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Any time Ty McCullouch attends a press conference, he’s a hit.

It’s not because he’s the one making all the biggest plays, although the Montana State senior wide receiver has made many. Instead, it’s because McCullouch is a master of linguistics, which makes sense considering he has an undergraduate degree in journalism and is closing in on his master’s in English writing.

To listen to him describe his experiences is to listen to a thoughtful, articulate young man with a prolific vocabulary and a flair for speaking his mind. To say he doesn’t sound like a football player would be both cliché and unfair. But to say he sounds very much like an intellectual would be accurate. It’s certainly something that stands out to his coaches and teammates.

“To be an English major, you are thoughtful, you are well-read, you are interested so that makes you interesting,” Montana State head coach Brent Vigen said with a smile. “He is one of the guys on our leadership council, and you almost always know that he has a thought on most things we talk about. He always had a thoughtful thought. When he speaks, it’s well thought out.”

That interest in others and that ability to communicate combined with an awareness that his touches will come, even if they are sparing compared to many throw-first offenses in modern college football, are the traits that sets McCullouch apart and makes him a key cog in the machine that is the Montana State offense.

“He exemplifies a guy who comes to you late in his journey but you can complete his journey,” Vigen said. “that’s so important in the transfer side of things and we haven’t been perfect but we’ve been able to get some guys who have really valued being here, being par to fit, being part of winning vs the self-gratification that many transfers are after.

“Ty just wants to win.”

Throughout his career coaching college football, and particularly during the last four years as Montana State’s head coach, Vigen has always wanted to know just exactly why a player wants to transfer into his program.

Is the potential addition disgruntled from a lack of opportunity at his current school? Has a spat of adversity made him want to bolt? Does he want more individual attention?

When McCullouch expressed strong interested in transferring to Montana State, it became apparent almost instantly to Vigen that the man who earned the nickname “the fastest man in the Mountain West” wanted one thing: McCullouch wanted to win.

“Understanding why a kid is transferring, what is he looking for, is such an important piece for us,” Vigen said. “I knew he was real fast. (Former MSU assistants Freddie Banks and Adam Pilopal were coaching at CSU in 2022, they probably couldn’t understand why Ty wasn’t used more there.

“But that wasn’t it. When you cut through it, Ty needed a change. It wasn’t so much about him getting more touches. It was a change for his competitive nature.

“He’s a really strong competitor. Getting an opportunity to join a winning program was really, really significant to him.”

More than two years after McCullouch joined the Bobcats, it seems like a distant memory that he ever played college football anywhere other than Bozeman. He’s a thoughtful leader for the No. 1 team in the Football Championship Subdivision. He’s forged great friendships across the Bobcat locker room and counts MSU senior quarterback Tommy Mellott as one of his best buddies.

Now McCullouch can see the light at the end of the tunnel. He’s contributed touchdowns as a receiver, a runner and a passer this season and his 713 yards from scrimmage make him a key cog on the most prolific offense in the FCS. That offense has been one of the elements that has Montana State playing for the 2024 FCS national championship in Frisco, Texas on January 6.

It’s been McCullouch’s introspective nature, his articulate way of expressing himself and his dedication to his team that have helped endear him to his fellow Bobcats.

“Sometimes, transfers come in and think that they are above people, especially if they are at an FBS school but that never happened with Ty,” Montana State senior captain Rylan Ortt said.

“He came in and wanted to be indoctrinated within the team, be a team player, and ultimately, wanted to win, wanted to be part of a winning culture. He has been awesome since he stepped on campus.”

On the field, the 6-foot-1, 180-pound speed demon has become a dynamic player that unlocks much of what the run-heavy, bulldozing Bobcats do so well offensively. Opponents know Montana State is going to pound the football. Opponents know Mellott is perhaps the most explosive player in the open field in the country in the FCS, and maybe all of college football.

Because of McCullouch, opponents also know they have to stay honest on the outside. If they don’t, McCullouch can kill you with his supreme speed.

Montana State senior Ty McCullouch throws a touchdown pass against Northern Colorado/ by Blake Hempstead, Skyline Sports

Over the last six games of the regular season, McCullouch went off like a firecracker even if his touches have been limited compared to other elite receivers around the FCS. Against Northern Colorado, he threw a touchdown and caught another. Against Sac State, he ripped off a 32-yard rushing touchdown that was part of a record-setting day as MSU scored seven times on the ground, a single-game program record.

And in one of MSU’s most heated contests in a season full of thorough victories, McCullouch helped put Eastern Washington away by making one of the most important plays of his career and one of the most pivotal plays of Montana State’s season.

With the Bobcats clinging to a 35-28 lead in the fourth quarter, McCullouch saw man coverage on a third down and medium situation. That scenario has basically become automatic over the last two seasons for Mellott and McCullouch, although very few opponents have been bold enough to put themselves in that pinch.

Mellott made a perfect throw through contact to a streaking McCullouch for a 61-yard touchdown that proved to be the dagger for MSU. The Bobcats stamped a 42-28 victory to surge into November unbeaten.

“The receiving game, it’s not like we are going to catch eight or 10 balls a game,” McCullouch said. “We are going to catch two or three passes a game. And that could make the difference in a game. As a receiver and the leader of the receivers, that’s just something I’ve preached to them: be patient and let things come our way.

“The challenge is staying in it but we remind ourselves every drive, every play that our opportunity is coming and if it doesn’t, it just wasn’t deemed as such, there was a better option out there and we shouldn’t take that to heart because at the end of the day, we are just trying to chase that victory.”

Remaining ready has been crucial for McCullough, who is averaging 13.4 yards per scrimmage touch and has accumulated seven total touchdowns while also throwing the score against UNC.

“He’s a difference maker with his speed,” MSU first-year offensive coordinator Tyler Walker said. “He and Tommy, they just don’t get caught. You put that in the back of your head when you are calling plays.”

McCullouch’s touchdown in MSU’s 30-28 win over UC Davis proved pivotal. His rushing touchdown against Tennessee-Martin in the second round of the FCS playoffs helped spark a 49-17 rout and his receiving touchdown later in the first half helped turn the game into a blowout.

“Most of the things we do on this team revolve around the run game but guys who can be a vertical threat like him really allow our run game to be what it is,” Mellott said. “Just because of that threat I suppose, they just can’t load the box like they could if we didn’t have a threat like that. He’s a super fast guy, a hard worker and he gets the job done.”

Ty McCullouch on his 61-yard touchdown reception to seal a 42-28 win over Eastern Washington/ by Blake Hempstead, Skyline Sports

McCullouch grew up in Moreno Valley, California about an hour east of Los Angeles just before Riverside on Highway 60. In high school, a late move from King High in Riverside to attend Rancho Verde in Moreno Valley helped him blossom into a coveted recruit.

As a junior at King, McCullough caught just 12 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown. The following season at Rancho Verde, he hauled in 64 passes for 1,235 yards and 21 touchdowns. His team went to the CIF Southern Section D2 Playoffs and he was minted as a 3-star recruit.

UCLA and Fresno State each showed interest. His first offer came from Wyoming, then the offers began to pour in.

He received opportunities from the Cowboys along with Hawaii, Boise State, Sacramento State, and Cal. He went on visits to Cal and Boise before making his way to Fort Collins to visit Colorado State. His last visit was his best and he committed to the Rams.

“I absolutely love Fort Collins,” McCullouch said. “To be honest, it reminds me of Bozeman, just a little bigger.”

He played right away at Colorado State, hauling in three catches for 54 yards as a true freshman in 2019 while maintaining his redshirt. The following year, he caught one pass. In 2021, he snared 24 passes for 415 yards and a single score, but that was the high-water mark of his CSU career.

The following season, he suffered an injury that allowed him to play in just four games. He caught just 13 asses for 119 yards in 2022, which prompted him to explore new options.

For those in Montana who follow the Frontier Conference, the last name McCullouch is a memorable one. Andre McCullouch, Ty’s older brother, was a record-setting receiver at Rocky Mountain College in Billings from 2012 until 2015.

Former Montana State offensive coordinator & offensive line coach Brian Armstrong/ by Brooks Nuanez

Under head coach and offensive coordinator Brian Armstrong, Andre had three straight 1,000-yard seasons, totaling 291 catches for 4,242 yards and 43 touchdowns after transferring to the private school in Billings from Fresno State.

Armstrong joined Jeff Choate’s staff at Montana State ahead of the 2016 season and coached at MSU through 2022, keeping tabs on the younger brother of his former star. When the younger McCullouch felt like he needed a fresh start, Armstrong and the Bobcats reached out.

“Coach Army was a big reason I came here,” McCullouch said. “He got the ball rolling, that relationship with my brother and as soon as I hit the portal, they started talking and then I started talking to all the coaches. We tried to get a visit scheduled as soon as possible.

“As soon as I got here, it felt like it was the place for me, the coaches, the staff, everybody was just so welcoming.”

Vigen knew Bozeman and the staff would be a selling point as well.

“Some of the things he really enjoyed about Fort Collins, Bozeman brought,” Vigen said. “He is a really mature young man. He’s been exactly what we were hoping for and that’s not always the case in the portal world.”

As a good journalism major would, McCullouch appreciates the multiculturalism that football and playing for two football programs has provided his life.

“It’s been hard at times and it’s been easy at times,” McCullouch said. “When you get around a group of guys who have been so welcoming and just want to learn and communicate, it’s a really cool experience.

“A lot of these guys are native Montanas who have never been in such close contact with a Californian like me. And then we have guys from all over the West Coast. It’s amazing what football can do. It can bring people who never would have been together, together, forge a friendship, a kinship, a brotherhood. It’s been an amazing experience for me.”

The winning certainly hasn’t hurt. And that’s all Montana State has done during 2024. As the calendar turns to 2025 and MSU prepares to try to slay Goliath — No. 2 North Dakota State has won nine FCS titles since 2011 and has ended Montana State’s season four times since 2018 — McCullouch, like the almost two dozen other senior Bobcats, is trying to soak it all in as MSU tries to become the first team in Big Sky Conference history to finish 16-0.

“Not everything is going to go your way but you have to give your best effort,” McCullouch said. “I remember my brother telling me when I entered the portal that wherever I go, I have to make it right. It didn’t matter where I chose. I had to make the situation right myself, mentally, with my skills, had to make it right with myself and I had to keep pushing forward with my life.

“it’s been a long ride, six years, two different schools, four different head coaches, eight different wide receiver coaches, it’s been a wild ride. A lot of people would say it’s a lot of instability and not knowing who your next coach is going to be, when your next game is going to be. You can view it as instability, or you can view it as a lot of relationships for people who can help me down the line.

“it’s been really cool looking back on it. I get nostalgic thinking about all the years I put in and it’s finally coming to an end. It’s sentimental.”

Now, McCullouch and his teammates have one more sentimental memory to make.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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