Tennessee true freshman Jaylen Wright didn’t get to play his senior season of high school football because of North Carolina’s decision in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Durham native did, however, enroll early and spend spring practice knocking off the rust of not having played football in over a year. In doing so, Wright has been able to crack the running back rotation heading into his true freshman season.
“Jaylen Wright has done an excellent job,” Vols running backs coach Jerry Mack recently told the media. “I would say, in his last six practices or so, he has really grown in leaps and bounds, to be honest with you. What we’ve seen from him from the spring is just really, from a protection standpoint, he’s really made some good ground in protection.
“He understands what we’re trying to do. His eyes are in the right place a lot faster than they were in the springtime, and I think that’s a compliment to what he’s been doing in the offseason of how he’s been working and putting time in the film room. He’s a young man that wants to play as a true freshman.”
Wright was a track standout who in high school where he was a state champion during his junior year in the 55-meter dash. The 5-foot-11 speedster has a personal record of 10.84 seconds in the 100 meters. He once posted a video on his Twitter account that showed him running what he said was a hand-timed, 4.28-second 40-yard dash.
That speed has turned heads during his first couple of months at Tennessee and has him on track to contribute in Josh Heupel’s first season on Rocky Top. Just take a look at the final highlight of UT’s most recent fall scrimmage that the program’s twitter account tweeted out.
“Jaylen Wright has had a really good summer,” offensive coordinator Alex Golesh said at the beginning of fall camp. “He showed a lot of promise this spring.”
For Wright, it’s been about not getting too emotional if things don’t go quite the way he would like them to during practice. Instead, it’s been a very mature approach this fall camp.
“I think this fall camp he has not been as emotional at all,” Mack explained. “He’s taken heed to what Coach Heupel talks about, and he talks about putting that play behind you and moving on to the next play. I think that’s what Jaylen Wright has been most impressive (with) right now. He’s putting one good practice on top of another one.”
Wright models his game after former Tennessee running back Alvin Kamara. In doing so, Wright emphasized route running this summer in order to be able to split out wide if need be. Now he’s confident he can catch the ball out of the backfield or even in the slot.
“That's what I really tried to perfect my game at, was running routes and running good in the backfield — like running through the gap, shooting the gaps hard and just being quick and explosive as I am,” Wright told the media recently. “I know (Kamara) does a lot of that, going into the slot and running the ball and catching the ball out of the backfield. And then I know that the more you catch, the more money you're gonna make in the future.”
Wright seems to be a great fit for Heupel’s new offense. As someone who can rush the football, but also catch the ball out of the backfield, he’s sure to contribute at some point during his true freshman campaign.
“I think that this offense is very high-powered and very fast,” Wright said. “I think that we'll catch a lot of a lot of teams off-guard, a lot of defenses. The run game, I love the run game. I love the plays. It gets me open in space a lot. As far as like everybody, running back wise, I feel like we all are going to flourish in this offense.
“The running game in this offense is very ... like, very explosive. Like, we could pass the ball, we could run, and then, like, we're hurrying up, we're such in a rush. Then you just call a run play and you catch everybody off-guard and it's a big play. So really, it's a big-play offense and high-powered offense … I do a lot of inside runs, a lot of outside runs — where, like, we've got a lot of sweeps. We have a lot of, like, gap-scheme plays, counters, all that.”
Tennessee and Wright opens its season against Bowling Green on Sept. 2 at 8 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
