YSU’s Wright is ready to do it again in pads

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State football team puts on full pads today for the first time in fall camp.

And nobody on the team is any more anxious to begin the contact work for the upcoming season than fifth-year senior linebacker Jeremiah Wright.

The 5-foot-10-inch, 215-pound, three-year letterman thought he was playing his final season for the Penguins a year ago when he was the starting linebacker and selected one of the team captains.

But Wright’s season ended early when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Penguins’ third game of the season against Penn State before more than 100,000 fans at State College, Pa.

Wright applied for and was granted a medical redshirt for this season and he’s worked hard ever since he recuperated from knee surgery last winter.

“It’s all I’ve ever thought about since I started rehabbing the knee last winter,” Wright said.

Anticipating pads

And what will he think about when the pads go on again?

“I figure that I’ll be flying around all over the field tomorrow and making some hits that I’ve been longing to make for such a long time,” Wright said.

Wright’s return this season was another shot-in-the-arm for the YSU defense, which lost two other starting linebackers through graduation.

Wright joins returning All-Gateway Conference linebacker James Terry and senior returnee Rashod Cotton, the guy who stepped in and took over for Wright last season after the injury.

Wright came to the Penguins in 2003 from Orlando, Fla., and Edgewater High School, where he was second team all-state and led his team to the Class 6A state championship game.

He played in all 12 games his freshman season and recorded 49 tackles.

He became a starter as a sophomore and started all 11 games in 2004 and made a team-high 91 tackles and played in all 11 games in 2005 finishing with 65 tackles.

2006 tackles

He also had made 27 tackles during the first three games of last season before getting hurt.

After spending the last seven games of last season on the sidelines, Wright said that he really got to appreciate what the sldelines mean to the players on the field.

“You really get to appreciate all the enthusiasm that those guys build up on the sidelines that really helps out the guys on the field,” Wright said.

He also said that he won’t be thinking about his injury when he goes on the practice field today for the team’s first contact session.

“If I think about it, I might just be a little tentative about it, so I won’t be thinking about it at all,” Wright said.

Wright said he can’t wait for the season to begin, because of what he missed last year, winning the Gateway Conference Championship and returning to the playoffs. The Penguins finished with an 11-3 record.

“I want to do it all over again this year,” Wright said.

Wright’s first game back will be a big one as the Penguins take on Ohio State University on Sept. 1 at noon in Columbus.

The Penguins will take Sunday off before returning for their first two-a-day session Monday at 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.

mollica@vindy.com