Off The Hook Sports continues its 2022 Tennessee football preseason preview on the top 25 impact players for the Vols this upcoming season.
Coming in at No. 13 is sophomore running back Jaylen Wright.
Past Performance
It was hard to worry when leading rusher Tiyon Evans went M.I.A at the end of last season.
Evans battled injury problems and eventually entered the transfer portal with one game remaining on the schedule. Then-freshman Jaylen Wright would retain his role as Tennessee’s number two back in a split-carry system behind Jabari Small.
Wright held his own the entire season, capping a 409-yard, four touchdown freshman campaign with a 115-yard performance against Vanderbilt. He also scored a touchdown against the Commodores, popping a 10-yard rush to the left for six.
Wright, a former three-star prospect out of North Carolina, has elite speed and remains an instant threat in an offense known for just that. He was ranked the No. 21 player in the state of North Carolina and the No. 30 running back in the nation in the class of 2021.
Wright was also the catalyst for one of the most controversial moments of the college football season in the bowl game against Purdue. He chugged through a defender and landed on top of him, stretching the ball over the endzone to apparently give the Vols a six-point lead in the first stage of overtime. Instead, Wright’s forward progress was called. Tennessee went on to lose, 48-45.
Opportunities
The days of a single running back carrying the entire load of the rushing game are gone. Just ask running backs coach Jerry Mack.
“The days of guys getting 35, 40 carries in a game and those war-daddies, those days are a little bit gone,” Mack said in spring practice. “We would like to have guys that are running back by committee, to be honest with you.”
Running back by committee worked well for the Vols last season, a reality that comes with a pretty major role for Wright in 2022. Wright likely wont see the field considerably less than Jabari Small this season.
And if he can stay healthy, there’s no reason for him not to. Wright more than earned his way onto the field last season, especially to end the year. If that momentum can be focused onto Sept. 1 against Ball State, Tennessee fans should be looking at a pretty special sophomore season.
Wright may even be looked at as standalone RB1 this season. Small had injury problems in the past and that next-man-up mentality was what got Wright to where he is in the first place.
It would be interesting to see how Wright would fare with more of a role in the receiving game, especially absent two key pieces from last season. Obviously, Wright won’t be running any deep routes, but allowing Wright some space for speed in screens or shallow crossing routes could be a deadly combination for opposing defenses in 2022.
Hear it from…
Mack has seen the running back room grow in a lot of ways this offseason. His favorite word during spring camp was ‘accountability.’
“Accountability, there is tremendous growth. Also, you can talk about just his understanding of the game overall, the why’s behind why we do things,” Mack said. “When he was a freshman last year, it was really just lining up and playing football. Go left, go right and try to figure it out. Everything was moving extremely fast, no different than it is for Justin (Williams-Thomas) right now.
Wright had problems with the simple aspects of the game last season. With maturity and growth of understanding, expect some of those problems to lessen this year.
Wright has a chance to really shine in this offense if that mental side of the game can progress as Mack alluded to. His speed alone can give him a nudge over Small for certain packages, but what would surprise a casual fan is how tough he is as well. He isn’t just a scamp back – not by any means.
