Jaylen Wright taking pieces of legendary backs to improve his own game

At the head of this ground attack is junior back Jaylen Wright. The starting running back ranks third in the SEC with an average of 95.2 yards per game and first in the conference with 7.1 yards per tote.

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What has led to this spike in production, though?

Tennessee running back coach Jerry Mack attributes it to his approach day in and day out.

Macks says Wright has always had a rare intensity for his craft but it has taken the next step this season.

"The mindset more than anything else," said Mack. "Jaylen always ran the ball with a chip on his shoulder. When he approaches the game, you can watch him in pregame, he's very, very intense. He prepares very intense. You see the reflection of it on the field. The way he attacks the game. The way he attacks the preparation. When he gets the ball, he's kind of got the mindset of I refuse to go down. He doesn't want to let the first guy bring him down."

This isn't all, though. Mack also says Wright is a student of the game.

In this age, a lot of high level football players don't watch much of the game outside of the required film to compete. Wright loves the game, though, and has taken the time to watch historically great backs.

"You wish all your guys would make sure they're students of the game," said Mack. "Jaylen has done a good job, in the off-season and in-season, studying the game. We tease a lot of these guys, a lot of times them don't watch football. A lot of the time, they can't tell you some of the past greats that played the game because they didn't grow up watching the game as much as my generation did more than anything else. Here's a guy, he's kind of got a throwback feel to him. He can tell you about guys like Walter Payton, or TD, or anyone like that. It's just a mindset of I want to study greats, I want to study past greats, I want to study current greats, I want to study just the game of football to see what those guys saw."

Now, Wright has taken the attributes of the legends that currently dominate, excelled when he was a kid and laid the foundation before his time.

Mack says he can easily see this on the field. When Wright throws stiff arms or uses mechanics on runs, there is a clear correlation to these past greats' techniques.

"From a standpoint of just those small things, using the stiff arm," said Mack. "You can see him using that off-arm like a weapon now. You can see, like I said, getting his feet up on contact. He's got that leg kick like Payton used to have sometimes when trying to be patient going between the tackles on the perimeter."

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Wright is currently on pace for a career year after being named the starter early in the season.

Although the team likes to ride the hot-hand, it seems that the junior is more often than not the one that is carving through defenses.

He proved himself against a tough Texas A&M front a week ago while running for 136 yards on 19 carries for an average of 7.2 yards per rush.

Now, he'll be asked to take it on the road to give the Vols a shot to take down Alabama in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 2003.

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