Vanderbilt safety De'Rickey Wright 'expected to play' Saturday against Wake Forest

Vanderbilt received a positive word on star safety De’Rickey Wright ahead of their showdown against Wake Forest.

Coming off of a 47-13 win over Alabama A&M in Week 1 to advance to 2-0, the Commodores and Clark Lea are hoping to keep the ball rolling against the Demon Deacons at 11:00 a.m. ET in Winston-Salem. They would love to have Wright on the field after he left last weekend’s showdown with a leg injury, and it looks like it’s trending in that direction.

“Sources: Vanderbilt star safety De’Rickey Wright is expected to play against Wake Forest this morning,” tweeted Pete Thamel of ESPN. “He’d been day-to-day after leaving the Alabama A&M game with a leg injury.

“He practiced some Wednesday, all of Thursday and will play barring any setbacks in warm-ups.”

Moreover, Wright went down in the first quarter after making a stop on third down in the Commodores’ territory. While Wright was able to walk off the field on his own, he had an obvious limp. Wright went into the tunnel shortly after making it to the sideline.

Wright returned to the sideline but never reentered the game. Evidently, Wright’s fellow Commodores could pick up his slack. However, they’ll be elated to have him in the lineup on Saturday afternoon.

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Meanwhile, if Wright was on the field against Alabama A&M, the Bulldogs likely would have faced even more heartache. The 6-foot-4 senior was fantastic in Vanderbilt’s season-opening victory over Hawaii on Aug. 26. In the triumph, Wright boasted two picks, a forced fumble and three tackles.

For his outstanding efforts, Wright was named the Reese’s Senior Bowl Defensive Player of the Week. After the Commodores’ Week 0 victory, Lea praised his veteran defensive back.

“De’Rickey is a playmaker,” Lea said. “He’s a long, rangy, athletic guy and has really grown as he’s spent another year in the system. Both picks, obviously, were huge. The one in the endzone took points off the board for them and, obviously, the one that sealed the end of the game meant everything to us.

“I’m happy for him and proud of him. I thought there were strong plays for him in other areas, too. It’s a good start for him, for sure. I’m sure he’ll be looking to build on it.”

Hopefully, for Vanderbilt’s sake, Wright will be able to build on it against the Demon Deacons. The Commodores will face a tough test in Week 2 against Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons were dominant in Week 1, comfortably defeating Elon 37-17.

On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this article.