Between a Rock and a Wright Place

All we know from what Rod Carey has said is that Isaiah Wright “will be moved all over the field.”

Judging from what he has privately told some people, including Wright himself, the part of the field he will park himself most at is running back.

That both makes sense and is good news because not many college football teams have a first-team All-America returning and, in Wright, that’s just what the Owls have. Plus, the Owls have plenty of talented wide receivers.

They are a little thin at running back.

He was named first-team All-America kick returner by The Sporting News and, while Owl fans would like to see him in that role again this year, a team that desperately needs a top-tier running back could use Wright lugging the ball at least 15 times a game lined up behind Anthony Russo.

Screenshot 2019-05-11 at 11.43.57 PM

Army head coach Jeff Monken called Wright a “touchdown waiting to happen” before his team’s 2017 game with the Owls and with good reason.

What kind of running back would Wright be? He gave a slight glimpse in a 38-0 win over Stony Brook in 2016 when he carried the ball seven times for 48 yards but Wright was a true freshman playing in his second game. (For comparison, Bernard Pierce’s first game produced 44 yards on six carries as a true freshman.)

Wright would be more of a Pierce-like running back than Ryquell Armstead was. To use a baseball analogy, Armstead was a line-drive hitter who could occasionally hit a home run. Wright, like Pierce, is a home-run hitter who can take it to the house on any given play.

Wright will get a long look at the position at summer practice. Here’s hoping, instead of moving him around, new head coach Rod Carey will make the sound football decision for Temple and leave him right there.

Wednesday: The 2020 NFL Draft and Temple

Advertisement

3 thoughts on “Between a Rock and a Wright Place

  1. Wright is a bigger and more versatile Jahad Thomas. Wright, like Thomas, has that God-given make you miss ability. Wright is a bonafide college football All-American.

    Hopefully, he will find a way to stay healthier than Pierce. Armstead and Pierce had more speed. The NFL is all about speed.

    IMO he runs too upright to make it as a next level RB, and he does not have the speed to make it as a next level WR.

    Wright is from the 2016 last great recruiting class, ranked 2nd in the AAC and 59th nationally. Since then the recruiting classes have been at the bottom, both in conference and nationally. Rankings according to 247 Sports:

    2017 – 119th nationally/ 12th in AAC
    2018 – 82nd / 7th
    2019 – 105th / 9th

    It is impossible to compete for conference championships when the top teams are recruiting better athletes.

    The 2019 team will be Carey’s most talented team over the next four years. He better get it done this year.

    • If he gets it done this year, makes it easier to bring in that first full recruiting class. Collins did not get it done his first year and his recruiting was, to borrow your word, “meh.”

  2. I also believe IW should be the starting RB. He’s not BP, RA or JT. He’s Mr. Wright and deserves stardom in his own wright.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s