Though we are still a long way away from the return of football in America, the Canadian Football League is already going through its preseason portion of the calendar as it prepares for the 2025 season. That means that former NCAA football standouts who didn't catch on with an NFL team are trying to open eyes north of the border. That group includes former Texas Tech Red Raider receiver Drae McCray.
This past weekend, the speedster stepped onto a CFL field for the first time, and he made quite the impression. Naturally, he did so by doing what he does best, returning kicks.
Playing for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, McCray returned three kickoffs for a total of 110 yards. That included returns of 51 and 36 yards.
As a punt returner, he racked up 46 total yards on five punt returns. That's an average of 9.2 yards per return.
“It validates his tape,” Head Coach Corey Mace said. “He was an explosive returner in college and he was an excellent receiver at two schools.
“I think he showed exactly who he can be in the return game in the pre-season game. It’s just a matter of him fine-tuning his skill sets as a receiver.
“I thought he was getting progressively better throughout camp. He’s just a kid who had a couple of opportunities, and he made the best of them.”
Though McCray never developed into a consistent receiver as a Red Raider, he made an impact in the return game. Using his elite speed and his ability to get to full speed in the blink of an eye, he averaged 26.7 yards per kickoff return in his two years in Lubbock.
McCray had one touchdown return on a kickoff as a Red Raider. In 2023, he took a first-half kickoff to the house as the Red Raiders beat Houston at Jones AT&T Stadium.
That season, McCray led the Big 12 in total kickoff return yards with 717, averaging 27.6 yards per return. Those numbers dipped to just 432 last season, an average of 25.4 yards per return in 2024, but he was still one of the best return men in the nation.
Much of his drop-off as a senior was due to the fact that opposing teams feared his return abilities after seeing what he could do in 2023. Therefore, many kicked away from him or simply kicked the ball out of the endzone to prevent him from having a chance to break the game open.
What is interesting now is that McCray is working as a punt returner in the CFL. That's something he didn't do at Texas Tech.
In his two seasons with the Red Raiders, he returned no punts. However, in the professional ranks, where roster sizes are smaller, he will likely have to handle both types of returns to justify his place on a team.
That's because he isn't a proven commodity as a pass catcher. At Tech, he hauled in just 41 catches for 329 yards and a pair of touchdowns in 23 games played.
More was expected of him in that department when he arrived from FCS program Austin Peay. At that FCS program, he snagged 129 passes for 1,888 yards and 17 touchdowns in just 22 career games over two years.
That didn't translate to Texas Tech and the Big 12, though. However, McCray did find a way to be a weapon as a return man.
Now, he's proving to be that in the CFL as well. Hopefully, that skill will allow him to have a successful professional football career.