Wright Leading Candidate to Reunite with Parker at Troy

Thursday afternoon, John Brice of FootballScoop.com reported newly hired Troy University head coach Gerad Parker is working to bring in West Virginia University safeties coach Dontae Wright into a senior defensive staff position at Troy.

As former @NDFootball OC @GeradParker1 works to assemble his new staff at Troy, sources tell @FootballScoop that a prominent @Big12Conference assistant coach has emerged as a top target on defense: https://t.co/gCfyK146Wk
— John Brice (@JohnDBrice1) December 21, 2023

Parker spent two seasons at West Virginia with Wright serving as the offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach from 2020-21 before Parker accepted the tight ends coaching position at Notre Dame before he was elevated to offensive coordinator this past February. The two began their climb in the coaching ranks at the University of Kentucky.

Wright began his coaching career at Kentucky from 2007-09 as a graduate assistant before moving to North Alabama as the defensive line coach at North Alabama for two seasons (2010-11) and then Centre College for a year. Then, he took on a bigger role at Morehead State as the defensive line coach, special teams coordinator and recruiting coordinator from 2013-15. Next, he took the same role at Tennessee Tech before to the safeties coach at Western Michigan in 2018.

Wright joined the WVU staff in 2020. In year one, the Mountaineers led the nation in pass defense and ranked No. 4 in total defense (291.4), No. 21 in scoring defense (20.5), No. 23 in interceptions (11), No. 24 in pass efficiency defense (121.52) and No. 28 in rushing defense (131.8).

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