Vanderbilt defensive back De’Rickey Wright makes decision on future

Vanderbilt defensive back De’Rickey Wright, who entered the transfer portal in February, has withdrawn his name, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz. He was suspended late in the season for an undisclosed, off-the-field disciplinary issue.

De’Rickey Wright committed to Vanderbilt as a four-star recruit according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, which made him the No. 9 ATH in the 2020 recruiting class. In high school, Wright first committed to Alabama, then flipped his commitment to Ole Miss before ending up at Vanderbilt.

The 6-foot-4 defensive back appeared in eight games last season, tallying 24 tackles, one forced fumble and two passes defended. A versatile player that was recruited as an athlete, Wright lined up at both safety and outside linebacker. Though Wright only played in four games his freshman year, preserving a redshirt in 2020, he notched six total tackles — five of which came against Florida — and recovered a fumble against the Gators.

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.