The unwillingness to quit and unwavering desire to make Vanderbilt Football a household name requires individuals like graduate student De’Rickey Wright. To Wright, the fight and determination to succeed in a Power Four conference is second nature, seemingly ingrained into his being.
On Saturday afternoon, Vanderbilt Football took the field for its fourth season opener under head coach Clark Lea. The Commodores entered the day as an underdog, with almost every major media outlet predicting a 13.5-point loss. Yet, the ‘Dores came out on top 34-27, defeating a Virginia Tech team slated to compete at the top of the ACC.
After the game, Lea talked about the frustration and defeat that’s plagued Vanderbilt over the years. He also talked about the unwavering belief that program returners brought back — an unwillingness to quit and a desire to make Vanderbilt Football a household name.
“This team is different because we learned from [our] past experiences,” Lea said. “The guys that stayed with us have experienced feelings of frustration in the past, and they all chose to come back because of the belief that they had [in the system].”
Family in all its manifestations
From a young age, Wright knew what it was like to work hard and not expect anything. Hailing from northern Alabama, his family consisted of his mother, Christina Henderson, himself and his three sisters, Shi’Nita, Sha’Nora and Latrice. For a portion of his youth, Wright’s family lived in Gadsden, Ala. but was homeless. They moved from his great-grandmother’s house to family and friends’ places where they stayed the night.
“Growing up moving from place to place and being the oldest kid and son, with three younger sisters, I kind of had to grow up faster than most people,” Wright said.
When Wright was about 10, his family moved into subsidized housing roughly 10 minutes away in Atalla, Ala. Atalla, a city of just 5,000 people, was where Wright found a tight-knit community that embraced his family.
“I’m a product of my home,” Wright said. “There’s so many people that have just poured into me and that I still talk to today. Teachers, coaches and friends call me all the time saying they saw me [playing] or were thinking and praying for me.”
“Christina’s kid”
Wright started his athletic career at a very young age, almost as soon as he could walk. The first sport of his fruitful athletic career was baseball because everyone in his family played it. The baseball diamond was also the first place that Wright’s mother took him to get him out of the house.
“My mom said she got tired of me running around and messing everything up,” Wright said.
Wright continued to play baseball throughout his life and even considered pursuing a collegiate career.
“A lot of people back home, even my high school coaches, thought baseball was my sport,” Wright said. “I was really talented at baseball, but it just got boring to me.”
Bored of baseball, Wright turned his full attention to football, the sport that would take him to college. Wright stumbled into football one fall day. Now it has since been a part of his life for 19 years.
“I was actually [with my mom] dropping off one of my cousins [at their football practice],” Wright said. “I was three at the time, and I was always big for my age, so someone was like, ‘Christina is that your kid? How old is he? He can play.’”
Still young, Wright wanted to have fun playing with the bigger kids. Although his mom was apprehensive because he was so young, she permitted it. From then on, “Christina’s kid” has left his name ingrained in every program he has touched.
“Football was something me and my mom bonded over,” Wright said. “She was a tomboy through and through. She taught me how to throw a football, she would bring me to all my practices, even peewee and [she] was the team mom.”
In high school, Wright played for the Etowah High Blue Devils, the only public school in Atalla. He started as a quarterback, and as a sophomore, he led the Blue Devils to a 13-2 overall record and the third round of the 5A state playoffs.
“[Wright] hated quarterback,” Drew Noles, his high school coach, said in an interview with Vanderbilt athletics in 2022. “He has a good arm, but nobody wanted to rush him because him getting out of the pocket was such a weapon. He would have rather played receiver or defensive back.”
When Wright was a junior and Etowah had another starting quarterback, he was moved to defense. Immediately, Wright became a star. Soon, the offers came rolling in from major collegiate football powerhouses.
“I was kind of a late bloomer,” Wright said. “I didn’t get my first offer until the beginning of my junior year when I flipped over to defense. I played a couple games [at that position], and then I just started blowing up.”
As a four-star prospect by ESPN and Alabama’s 21st-ranked prospect by Rivals, Wright had 19 offers. These included some of college football’s blue bloods: Alabama, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and then-defending national champion LSU. Wright committed to Alabama in March of 2019, but little did he know that his recruiting chronicles had just begun.
Wright was committed to Alabama for just three months before flipping to Ole Miss. His recruitment was once again reopened after a coaching change in Oxford. This was when Wright started to consider the Vanderbilt Commodores, one of the first colleges that gave an offer to him.
“I had a former teammate [Justin Harris] here,” Wright said. “He was telling me to come [to Vanderbilt], and at the time Derek Mason was the head [coach], and I was like ‘Hey, why not play for a coach that looks like me.’”
Brotherhood
In December 2019, Wright settled on his final destination and officially committed to Vanderbilt University. After Wright committed, the Commodores went 3-9 and won just one SEC game. That didn’t deter Wright. It motivated him.
“Anybody can go to [successful programs like] Alabama and Ole Miss or whatnot,” Wright said. “The people [at Vanderbilt] were willing to do the hard things.”
It was the fall of 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19, when Wright started his collegiate career. That season had a lot of ups and downs for him as he dealt with injuries and quarantine. On top of that, the Commodores only played SEC teams and went winless (0-9).
Wright’s life changed forever on December 7, 2020, when he received a phone call that his mother had suffered a brain aneurysm and passed away. She was just 35 years old.
When he talks about Christina presently, Wright’s eyes are filled with love and grief. In the wake of her passing, Wright had to ask himself a difficult question: With three sisters to provide for, could he return to the football field?
“I had thoughts of ‘do I even want to play anymore?’” Wright said. “I [was thinking] I have three younger sisters that I needed to be there for.”
Vanderbilt had simultaneously undergone a complete coaching change in the few weeks since its final game. Mason was fired on November 29, just one day after the Commodores’ final game of the season. Current head coach Clark Lea was hired on December 14. This meant that Wright would be part of a brand-new system.
After countless talks with coaches, family and friends, along with lengthy self-reflection, Wright decided to return to Vanderbilt and finish what he had started.
“A lot of people talked to me and told me that [leaving football to take care of my family] shouldn’t be a decision at all — [that I] had a lot of talent and a bright future ahead of me.” Wright said. “The support I had around me [made me] realize that I love this sport.”
Another major factor in his decision was how much football meant to Wright and his mom.
“My mom would have wanted me to continue playing football,” Wright said.
Wright came back as a sophomore but was held back by injuries, missing four games. Still, he saw time in eight games and made 24 tackles, including 3.5 for loss. The season ended with Vanderbilt going 2-10 and once again failing to win a conference game. Exploring other options, Wright entered his name in the transfer portal but removed it, compelled by his brotherhood at Vanderbilt and a growing relationship with Lea.
The following season Wright started to see the payoff of everything he had been through. As Vanderbilt’s full-time safety, he played in all 12 games and had 55 tackles. He also made three interceptions, which ranked second in the SEC. He helped the Commodores win games over Kentucky and Florida, snapping a 26-game SEC-losing streak in the process.
Going into his senior year with the Commodores, many were talking about Wright. He was named to the Senior Bowl watch list and Phil Steele’s Preseason All-SEC Team. Recording 46 total tackles, two interceptions, and two forced fumbles, the awards kept rolling in. Among these were midseason All-SEC honors from College Football Network and a Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award nomination.
Still, the Commodores struggled, going 2-10 (0-8). Wright again entered his name in the transfer portal.
Even after committing to Texas A&M, Wright felt a pull to West End and the brotherhood within the program. He desired to make his mark with the Commodores.
“You’re not going to play harder than when you’re playing with someone you love, with somebody you did hard things with,” Wright said. “This team is fearless, and we’re going to fight and are looking for big things this year.”
Vanderbilt’s win over Virginia Tech feels like the program’s trajectory is changing for the better. The impact that Wright has had on the team over the past five years cannot be understated.
“De’Rickey is a guy that’s endured so much off of the field and he would never paint himself as a victim,” Lea said. “He’s got such strength that way, but he’s been through so much and has never had the opportunity to just focus on being a good football player. One of the great joys of the job is that I get to share in the growth of all people in this program. When you get to be there to be a part of that improvement, there’s no better feeling in the world than that.”
When all is said and done, Wright said he will be most proud for having accomplished something no one else in his family has: earning a college degree. Not to mention, his degree will be from one of the nation’s premier institutions.
“[Getting a degree from Vanderbilt] means the world to me,” Wright said. “Being the first one in my family to do it is a blessing, with all that we’ve been through.”
Wright also hopes that by sharing his story and gaining a degree, others with similar stories will believe they can do it too.
“[I hope] kids in my shoes can keep on believing in themselves,” Wright said. “I also hope that people will learn to pour into them and tell them that they can achieve at the highest level. [Without] people pouring into me, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.”
