Catching up with former South Carolina assistant Jody Wright

One day after being joined by former South Carolina assistant Pete Lembo, the GamecockCentral Takeover on 107.5 The Game welcomed former Gamecock assistant Jody Wright to the show.

Wright, the first-year head coach at Murray State, led the Racers to the first win of his head coaching career last week. They’re taking on North Dakota on Saturday afternoon.

Below is a transcript and video.

GamecockCentral Takeover: Jody, first of all, we appreciate your patience waiting on us through the break there. Thanks for hanging out with us for a few minutes, and congratulations on getting your first career win as a head coach this past weekend against Mississippi Valley State. I know that had to have felt pretty good for you.

Jody Wright: I appreciate it, guys. Thank y’all for having me on today. It’s an honor, and yes, we’re very excited. Staff did a great job. I was proud to get the win. Glad they didn’t run Jerry Rice out there. I mentioned before the game. I was like, “I hope there’s no kids running out of Mississippi Valley’s locker room with the last name Rice. We better double cover them.” But I was glad to get our first win, and we’ve got a big one this week versus North Dakota, so we’ve got to go up there. We’re excited for the challenge.

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GCT: Jody, it’s Wes. Great to hear from you, man. We really miss you here in Columbia. Hopefully, you miss us as much as we miss you, man. But I know you’ve got your own thing going on there and running your own program. Open-ended question, but what has maybe been the biggest adjustment for you going from sitting in the assistant role to running every single aspect of a college football program?

Wright: Yeah, you know, it’s been some challenges, but it’s been fun. I guess the biggest difference is not being out there every day trying to, you know… I go around, I try to go to each position room. I thought that was one thing Coach Beamer did a great job of—sitting in special teams meetings, going around, trying to help each position room, or getting in the way mostly, probably. But that’s been fun.

You know, the weird part is doing the schedule and saying, “Hey man, gah it’d be nice to have practice cut short a little today,” and then going “Man, I get to decide that. So that’s been neat. But it’s been a lot of fun, and the adjustment hasn’t been as big as I thought it would be. You know, I’ve tried to take something from every head coach I’ve worked for and apply it, so it’s been pretty smooth for the most part.

GCT: Jody, Chris Clark here. Thanks for taking time.

Wright: Chris, how you doing, man?

GCT: Doing well. Thanks for joining us, appreciate you. So aside from yourself, you’ve got some other Gamecock ties on your staff there that you took with you over to Murray. I want to give you a chance to talk about some of your young coaches that you’ve hired on there and how they’re doing. You just shouted them out for their work in one of the games recently.

Wright: Yeah, it’s been great. I wish we could’ve had a live feed. We were watching the Kentucky game before. That’s probably why we didn’t play too good against Butler—we were jumping up and down. Zeb Noland, the former quarterback, is our quarterbacks coach, Jaylin Dickerson, former DB, is working with our DBs, and Tyler Zielenski, of course, was Coach Lembo’s assistant. Then we also have Eli Johnson, who is Ellis Johnson’s son, as our offensive graduate assistant. I’ve got a Gamecock helmet in my office. There are about four or five Gamecock helmets running around the Murray State football facility. So we’ve got Gamecock helmets and Gamecock stuff everywhere here. We’re kind of like the South Carolina of the West, I guess you could say.

GCT (Tyler): Again, talking to former South Carolina assistant, now head coach at Murray State, Jody Wright. And, you know, speaking of keeping your eyes on what Carolina’s been doing this year, you’ve all been very pleased with what Michael Smith has done so far. I’m sure you’ve kept a close eye on those tight ends and were involved in his recruiting process. Any surprise to you that he’s come in and made such a big impact right away for this team?

Wright: You know, I knew he would. He’s a very talented player and comes from a great family. I’m excited that he was able to get there as a freshman. After I took this job, I’d try to call in and check on him every week, making sure he was staying on top of his grades to get eligible and everything. He’s loving it. His mama, she called me the day he was moving in and said, “We’re finally here,” you know? But it’s been great.

I’ve been able to stay in touch with Shane. I know he’s busy, but he took the time to text me after our win. I was so heartbroken after the LSU game, but I just told him, you know, the guys played their hearts out. The atmosphere there, I think, showed the whole nation how special South Carolina is. Credit to Coach Beamer, the players, staff, and fans. I think Gameday was probably saying this was the best atmosphere they’d seen in a long time, or maybe ever, in my opinion.

GCT: Jody, lots of Gamecock fans… We actually had Pete Limbo on yesterday, and lots of fans have been keeping up with what he’s doing at Buffalo, watching you at Murray, and pulling for you guys here, man. So, what can you tell us? I’m looking now: you’ve got North Dakota this week, 1 p.m. on ESPN+. If you’re listening out there and you want to watch early in the day, what can you tell us in terms of previewing this matchup for Saturday?

Wright: Yeah, you know, they’re about like all the Dakota teams. They’re big, they’re well-coached, and they’re going to beat you by playing their game, which is line up and pound it on you. They do a lot of different stuff on defense. I was messing with my grandma and some friends in Tuscaloosa, saying we’re on ESPN Ocho or whatever it is— ESPN Plus , eight or nine, one of those—but you can watch it if you’ve got Hulu.

All the Dakota schools, North Dakota State Bison… We’ve got them coming down the road as well, and South Dakota State. But it’s a challenge. That’s what I was telling our team. I said, “This is the No. 9 team in the country, and it’s a great opportunity.” Unfortunately, Murray State has not won a road football game since 2021, so I told our team it’s been over a thousand days since Murray State’s won a road football game. Hopefully, we’re going to change that this weekend. But it’s been great. I can’t say enough about our team’s fight, and hopefully, we’ll have some positive results as the season continues.

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GCT: Jody, got a recruiting question for you. You’ve helped Nick Saban run recruiting, recruited players like Mike Smith to South Carolina—that’s something you’re big on. It’s also something you’ll have to do at Murray. Coaches at that level have said it’s even harder nowadays to build a roster because, if you land some good players, they might get poached by bigger schools through the transfer portal. So what’s your approach to roster building in 2024?

Wright: Yeah, I told our coaches… We’ve got players on our team from Russia, Australia, England—we’ve even got a Japanese manager. We’ve got everybody, but it doesn’t matter where they come from: JUCO, high school—we’re just trying to build the best roster we can for this season. We brought in 65 new players after spring training, which has got to be a record. They’ve been great, though.

I tell our players upfront and honestly, we hope you’re playing so good that you’re an All-American and have people saying, “Hey, you need to go in the portal because an SEC school wants you.” I hope I have a player so good he’s an All-American and Shane and I are talking about him, like, “Hey, he’d be a great fit at South Carolina.”

I tell them all the time, “That means you played really, really good, and someone’s probably going to try to pay you to go somewhere else.” It’s funny to joke about it, but if you get a really good player, no different from the SEC, you think, “This guy’s only going to be a three-year player,” and in three years, he’s going to be a draft pick. That’s the goal. Or at least have a hard decision.

You’ve got to embrace it because it’s the climate we’re in now. I do hope there’s some type of transparency in the future. The NFL has a salary cap, and everyone plays on a level field. It’d be nice to have something like that in college football. Right now, it’s hard, and what’s happening isn’t good for the game overall. But you’ve got to embrace it because it’s the world we’re living in.

GCT (Tyler): Well, Coach, we appreciate you taking a little time for us this morning. We know you’re a busy guy, and like I said, we’re going to keep an eye on what you’re doing out there. Certainly wishing you guys the best of luck this weekend and the rest of the season going forward.

Wright: I appreciate y’all. South Carolina fans are lucky because y’all are first class in every way and mean so much to that program. Thank y’all for everything y’all do. We definitely need some South Carolina players here at Murray. I know we’ve offered some high school guys from there, but we’d love to get some more. Appreciate y’all—Go Racers, and Go Gamecocks!

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