Human highlight reel: Michael Trigg's growing trust leads to success at Baylor

When tight end Michael Trigg first got to Baylor ahead of last season, he was assigned an unoccupied jersey number with the rest of the incoming transfers.

He was given No. 86, but it wasn't the number he wanted.

At Baylor, single digits mean something.

They’re voted on by the team and assigned based on leadership and accountability. Not every team leader wears a single digit, but every player who wears one does so for a very specific reason.

“When he got there, Coach Aranda did the best thing he could have for Mike,” said Trigg’s dad, Michael Trigg Sr. “He made him earn that No. 1 jersey. If he had just given it to him, it would’ve been like every other school.

“When he didn’t start right away, that was even better. It got his mind right.”

One of the top recruits coming out of high school in Tampa, Trigg spent one season at USC, where he made seven catches in four games.

He spent two seasons at Ole Miss, catching three touchdowns as a sophomore in 2022, but was kicked off the team after just two games in 2023.

Baylor offered a fresh start.

“I don’t know if I had an offer from Baylor out of high school,” Trigg Jr. said. “This isn’t a school I would’ve come to. So it was just something different. It’s a small town, and I wanted to lock in. You meet so many great people in this place.”

It took Trigg Jr. some time to get used to the culture at Baylor.

Off the field, Trigg Jr. said, when he first got here, he would pass a quiet Aranda in the hallway of the football building. He had to tell his head coach that he wanted him to say hello and dap him up when they crossed paths.

On the field, he was suspended for the BYU game for a violation of team rules last season.

Aranda said that trust is the biggest area of growth he’s seen from the talented tight end. 

“When there’s not a built-in ability to easily trust or connect, I think it’s hard, because you think you’re going to be judged, not only for what your words say, but what your energy is and your facial expression and just kind of the whole (thing),” Aranda said. “Now, you can say what you feel, and he believes you and knows it’s for his own growth and his own good. 

“Sometimes, you have to go through that to show people how much you really mean it.”

Baylor tight end Michael Trigg has 649 yards so far this year, the best single-season total in school history for a tight end.

Rod Aydelotte, Tribune-Herald

Last year, Trigg Jr. and Aranda would have had many one-on-one sessions.

This year, Trigg Jr. is much more self-reliant. He’s even joined Bible study alongside quarterback Sawyer Robertson.

“My perspectives have changed,” Trigg Jr. said. “I feel like I've matured. The way I view things now compared to when I was a 19-year-old is definitely way different. Definitely a big help from (Aranda), just slowing down and not reacting off emotion and stuff like that.”

How comfortable is Trigg Jr. in Waco? 

He’s become so much of a local that he has a favorite restaurant, Krispy Chicken on Franklin Ave., where he gets fried chicken and fries with some jalapeños and hot sauce on the side. 

“I go there so much, they know me,” Trigg Jr. said.

Hoop dreams

Trigg Jr. was a first grader growing up in Tampa, Florida, when he watched Percy Harvin and Florida win their second national championship in 2008.

He told his dad he wanted to go to Florida and wear No. 1, just like Harvin.

So he started doing pushups on the spot.

“He was different, man,” Trigg Sr. said. “He was doing pushups at four years old to the point where he would challenge his older brothers that he could do more pushups than them.”

At first, Trigg Jr. thought he was going to be a running back. He picked No. 5 to mimic Reggie Bush instead of wearing No. 19, the number Trigg Sr. wore in college and the one his two older brothers donned. 

Trigg didn’t play football as a freshman at Seffner Christian, where he spent the first three years of his high school career. 

But basketball was his first love.

He went to state as a sophomore, and scored 33 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out six assists, and didn’t miss a shot in the state title game to earn all-state honors.

He was such a good basketball player that he wanted to do both in college, which is part of the reason he committed to USC, which offered him the opportunity to play both basketball and football. After suffering an injury during the football season, he decided to focus on the gridiron.

He hasn’t talked to Scott Drew, but he’s confident he could fit in if they need an extra body in post.

“I tell my coaches all the time, you put a ball in my hand right now, I feel like I can go play on the team,” Trigg said.

From Los Angeles to Oxford

USC pulled out all the stops trying to get Trigg to come to California. 

The Trojans took him to Mastro’s Ocean Club for a steak next to the beach in Malibu. The butter cake to end the meal was the size of the plate and had his name written across it.

“I was like, yeah, it’s gonna be hard to leave this,” Trigg Jr. said.

The coaches helped, too. 

Trigg liked playing for Clay Helton, the head coach who recruited him, and his tight ends coach, Seth Doege, used to take him to a park just outside of Los Angeles to get in extra work until he learned the USC playbook.

Of more than 50 offers Trigg Jr. received coming out of high school, Lincoln Riley wasn’t one of them.

When Riley was hired as USC's coach in 2022, he wanted Trigg Jr. to play defensive end. 

Ole Miss was different.

Trigg Jr. said he really liked Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and his offensive-minded approach.

But he quickly learned that he couldn’t coast on his natural gifts like he had throughout his high school days and for stretches of time at USC.

“Growing up, I was never really one of them kids who had to practice, I was going to be ready to go regardless of how the day was going,” Trigg Jr. said. “At Ole Miss, everybody was so talented. You couldn’t coast.”

It’s a mindset that he brought to Waco. 

Trigg Jr. wasn’t as much of a hot commodity the second time he got in the portal because of the inauspicious way he left Ole Miss, so there weren’t as many schools to reach out.

At first, he took a visit to California, which, like USC did four years earlier, rolled out the red carpet. Cal put his name up in the stadium and had a book of specially-designed plays featuring Trigg Jr.

Baylor didn’t have any of the theatrics, but he still chose the Bears.

When Trigg Jr. was kicked off the team after four weeks in his second year at Ole Miss, he was forced to watch the rest of the Rebels’ season at home.

He had plenty of friends and family who continually called him and encouraged him to keep working, getting ready for his next opportunity. 

It’s made him appreciate what he has at Baylor even more. 

“When I have a bad game or drop a pass, I try to remember when I was at home,” Trigg Jr. said. “I am blessed to be here, because I’ve been on the other end of the stick.”

Arizona State

Trigg Sr. can pick out his son from afar whenever his team runs out on the field for every game. He looks for the skipping, smiling player he helped raise.

Earlier this season, against Arizona State was different. 

Trigg Jr. had been dealing with a shoulder injury since the spring, one that forces him to wear a brace under his jersey. So he put on a yellow shirt under his black jersey for the night game against the Sun Devils. 

Before the game, Mack Rhoades tugged on his undershirt and questioned why he was wearing it.

At first, Trigg Jr. said, he was trying to recognize who it was. If it were a coach, he said he wouldn’t have reacted. He said that was the first time he interacted with Rhoades, other than when he announced the chrome helmets to the team ahead of the season opener.

Trigg Jr. said offensive coordinator Jake Spavital was near him, encouraging him not to interact, and tight ends coach Jarrett Anderson was holding him back. 

“It was just one of those situations where you had to stop and react, and I'm reacting slower than I normally would have,” Trigg Jr. said. “I'm walking out on the field, I'm not even looking at the play, I'm still looking at (Rhoades). Like, ‘we really finna do this right here?’ That's crazy.”

Trigg Jr. finished the Arizona State game with two touchdown receptions, the most of his Baylor career.

Baylor confirmed and investigated the incident.

Trigg Jr. said he and Rhoades talked later, and he apologized for the miscommunication.

“I told him to remember that he made some mistakes at Ole Miss,” Trigg Sr. said. “And the AD made a mistake. God gave you a second chance at Baylor, play for your AD. I don’t want anyone’s life to change because they made a bad decision.”

It wasn’t the first time Trigg Jr. had an altercation on the sideline.

When he was at Ole Miss, he was called for a false start that prevented the Rebels from going for it on fourth down. On his way back to the sideline, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin gave him a little shove.

Trigg Jr. was unfazed.

“That’s just how me and Coach Lane were,” Trigg Jr. said. “That wasn’t our first interaction.”

Bringing a Mackey to Waco

The one-handed catches that consistently land him on SportsCenter don’t surprise Trigg in the slightest. He’s been doing it as long as he can remember.

“I try to catch it with two hands, honestly,” Trigg Jr. said. “Off reaction is usually when it happens.”

His teammates disagree. 

“The first time he had a one-handed catch was during fall camp, and it stunned the whole indoor,” fellow tight end Matthew Klopfenstein said. “We were looking around like, what just happened? Knowing he has the ability to do that gives us confidence.”

Trigg has put together the best season of any tight end in Baylor history. 

In nearly two years with the Bears, his 1,044 yards at Baylor is a new career record among tight ends, and he ranks second in all-time career touchdowns (nine) and fourth in career receptions (73). 

He has 649 yards so far this year, the best single-season in Baylor history for a tight end, while he’s tied for the single-season record in touchdowns (six) and receptions (43).

“I wouldn’t say I’ve surprised myself, I just have put the work in,” Trigg Jr. said. “I’m in here late nights trying to recreate the Saturday moments before I get there. I do that a lot.”

Trigg Jr. has the second-best odds to win the Mackey Award, given to the nation’s best tight end.

Before he got to college, Trigg Jr. and Trigg Sr. would have conversations about winning the Mackey and being the best tight end in the country. 

“Everything he’s receiving, that’s what he wanted from college football,” Trigg Sr. said. “He wanted to be on SportsCenter and to have the world see him.”

Trigg Jr. has had a shift in perspective. 

“I feel like I'm the best tight end in college football, but I feel like I'm a good person,” Trigg Jr. said. “I feel like my teammates can come to me. I'm more than the best tight end in the country. So, me getting that, it wouldn't really change who I am.”