Purdue Wide Receiver Milton Wright Focused, Looking to Take Advantage of Opportunities
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It's been a quiet start to the 2021 college football season for Purdue wide receiver Milton Wright. It's tough to put up numbers every week when you play on the opposite side of a player like David Bell.
But when the ball comes your way, you have to make the catch. The junior has struggled this season securing passes, leading to several drops in the Boilermakers' first three games.
"No question about it. Undoubtedly, he has to catch the football," Purdue wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard said. "And that's what he and I have talked at length about."
The players and coaches that see Wright every day don't hesitate to acknowledge his work ethic. Some of the passes he's been unable to pull in are routine during a week of practice, but they haven't entirely translated on the field this year.
"Milton goes harder than any player on our whole football team," Shephard said. "I mean, in practice, during the game, he goes as hard as anybody we have out there. I just want to see him be able to harvest the fruits of his labor. A part of that is when you get opportunities, you got to take advantage of those opportunities, and he will."
Wright caught a season-high three catches for 17 yards in Purdue's 27-13 loss to Notre Dame last week. He also snatched a two-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Jack Plummer, his first of the year.
It was the only touchdown for the Boilermakers against the Fighting Irish. Wright had opportunities to contribute more during the game while being targeted eight times, but he wasn't able to take full advantage.
Drops weren't the only thing that contributed to a poor offensive showing, of course, yet they have driven Wright and the rest of the team to work even harder to prepare for Illinois at Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday.
"He's angry. A lot of guys were after our last performance," redshirt fifth-year wide receiver Jackson Anthrop said. "So just being able to come out and kind of get that steam off, it's good. It's good to do that, and especially in the first practices. You just sat around all weekend, and Monday you're off. So just getting out here and going hard, it feels good to make some deep-ball plays and stuff like that."
Purdue may need Wright to step up in a big way this weekend to open up Big Ten play. The Boilermakers will be without sophomore wide receiver Mershawn Rice, while Bell is in concussion protocol and will be a game-time decision against the Fighting Illini.
The last time Purdue played Illinois, Wright caught six passes for a career-high 100 yards and a touchdown. In response to his mistakes, he came to practice this week with renewed resolve. Wright is a leader in the receiver room, and the program will look for him to pick up the slack if Bell is unable to suit up.
"You can tell he's focused, he hasn't said much, which is unlike him," Anthrop said. "But at the same time, he's dialed in. He knows what he needs to do, and he knows what we want him to do. So he just came out here, he had a great practice, too. He probably had the best practice out of anybody."
At the end of the day, drops won't be the defining factor of Wright's season. His teammates are making sure of that. Despite any adversity he faces throughout the season, the Boilermakers continue to hold Wright to a high standard.
"Milton's a good player, and he comes to work," Plummer said. "He came out to work, and with David out, he wanted to step up and kind of show that he can be the number one receiver. He has had a couple drops but that's not shying the quarterbacks away from him. We know we know what he's capable of, and we're confident in his ability."
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.