All kinds of athletic talent at all levels of college football
🎶...I was the man for the job...🎶
Luke Bryan and Rachel Thibodeau, "Good Directions," 2006
You wouldn’t believe the number of prospects and parents who think their All-district, All-Region, even All-state football player is “too good” for the NCAA, Division I (FCS), NAIA, NCAA Divisions II and III, and Junior College. This article has been written to get across a point and it is one parents and prospects need to “get.” If we are being perfectly candid, the KHSAA produces about six to 10 or so, Division I FBS, Power 4’s to Mid-Major Letters of Intent signing players a year. That means, for the rest of the KHSAA, you’re going to be looking at some denomination of partial-ride to a Division-I, FCS or (hopefully) a fully subsidized experience in the NAIA, NCAA Division II or III, or even Junior College. Kentucky produces well more than six to 10 outstanding HS players a year, so, you do the math.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Barbourville, KY: John Luttrell has been the head football coach at Union College since January of 2020. We think mighty well of Coach Luttrell. Luttrell previously coached at both Cawood High and Harlan County leading those teams to seven (7) playoff appearances.
Luttrell graduated cum laude from Union College in 1988, where he played football and earned All-American honors. He was inducted into the Union College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
Luttrell spent 25 years as an infantry officer with assignments that included leading soldiers in three different combat operations. Operation Just Cause (Panama), Operation Desert Shield/Storm (Iraq), and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) were conflicts in which Luttrell was principally involved on his country’s behalf.
Luttrell knows young men. Luttrell knows young men needing an additional chance. Luttrell knows “character” and “courage” when he sees it.
Maybe that is why Luttrell was willing to take a chance on a former reality TV star from “Last Chance U.” “Last Chance U” was (and may still be) an American documentary television series produced by and premiered on Netflix.
The six (6)-episode, first season, explored the football program at East Mississippi Community College (EMCC). That program featured several collegiate athletes who experienced trouble in their lives and struggled with finding structure.
The players were trying to earn their way into a Division I football experience. Isaiah Wright, needing a chance in addition to TV’s “Last Chance,” earned his way to Barbourville, Kentucky to play for Luttrell.
Hampton
Wright was featured in “Last Chance U’s” first season. Wright was easily among the best athletes on EMCC’s roster, helping to lead that team to an 8-1 conference mark and 11-1 overall record.
Wright was definitely an athletic, multi-talented football player. Wright was versatile enough to play different positions on the field. During his career, Wright played running back, wide receiver, and returned kicks.
What I want to discuss is Wright’s first game at Union College, particularly a play I saw during that game. In Wright’s opening game he rushed for 251-yards and three (3) TDs. It was the second best rushing output, in Union history, up to that point.
There was one particular play I want to highlight. Here is what I remember. I was watching the game, online. It was between Union College and Campbellsville University.
Wright was handed the football for a run which looked designed to go inside. There was no hole, so Wright used his speed and athleticism to bounce the play outside.
A linebacker, from Campbellsville, got “downhill” to attempt to take away Wright’s legs, diving at Wright’s feet. Wright flipped in the air, landed on his feet, and, without missing a beat, housed the handoff for a score.
The play was amazing. The play covered nearly 80-yards. The attempt to tackle him didn’t appear to even slow him much, if any. Wright seamlessly somersaulted in mid-air and landed on two feet which were motoring him toward his team’s ultimate payoff.
I thought it was an ESPN SportsCenter, Top 10-play. I have no idea if it made a broadcast. If it did, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.
I texted Coach Luttrell and several of the Campbellsville parents I knew and who had sons I had before covered. Amazement seamed to flow, unbridled, amongst our group. Luttrell didn’t respond until an appropriate time after the game, though I did text him in real time.
This wasn’t Alabama-Tennessee. This was Union College-Campbellsville. Let me assure you, you wouldn’t find any more athletic of a play than what I had just witnessed even with tickets to The Third Saturday in October.
Here’s the point and the reason for our publishing this article. If you were to see Isaiah Wright in street clothes, standing with 10-other RBs playing for 10 FBS, Power 4 teams; and we were to say, “One of these guys plays for Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky and the other 10 play in the SEC,” you would be hard pressed to describe the physical difference.
That is how small college guys get to the NFL and play for years undetected. That is how players like Gene Upshaw and Mel Blount go from small college stars to NFL Hall of Famers.
Chuck Bednarick played collegiately at Pennsylvania in the Ivy League. Deacon Jones played at Mississippi Vocational College. There are more examples of this throughout league history.
All of this supports the fact there are only a minuscule of differences between the players competing at the various levels. Sometimes uncontrollable circumstances, such as opportunity and/or environment, were the main difference as was the case in Wright’s situation.
🎶Thank God for good directions/And turnip greens...🎶
Luke Bryan and Rachel Thibodeau
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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