Vols OL Darnell Wright Discusses Reason for Staying at Tennessee

Darnell Wright discusses his reason for not exploring the transfer portal

That 2019 class was billed as a serious building block for the future on Rocky Top, as Tennessee went head-to-head and won multiple key recruiting battles, but less than half the players from the class remain on the roster at Tennessee with several exiting after Jeremy Pruitt's departure.  

Darnell Wright was arguably the biggest recruiting win o Pruitt's tenure. The massive mauler from West Virginia was a consensus five-star recruit in the 2019 class, and he was a victory at a major position of need for the recruiting class, and he chose to stick with the Vols following the coaching change, and today, for the first time publicly, Wright discussed why he stayed. 

"That's not really my personality, just up and run when stuff gets hard," Wright said about his decision. "Even in high school, I could've left, I could've went early. I could have pre-enrolled early in school and stuff. I wanted to give my guys in high school, coaches keep coming in, get other guys recruited. I wasn't going to bounce on my teammates like that."

Wright understands how the process works, so he does not fault those around him that left, but in the end, he believes Tennessee was best for him. 

 "Even the other guys that had other opportunities like you've got to do what you've got to do, what's best for yourself," he added. "I felt like my best opportunity was here."

Wright used his family and former high school head coach to work through the process to make the decision to stay at Tennessee. 

"Obviously, my head coach (Billy Seals) back home," he added about how he worked through it. "A lot of people around me. People that I really trusted, that don't have a vested interest in anything I've got going on."

Wright has shredded weight and moved from right tackle to left tackle for the Vols this fall. He will look to solidify his spot as the blindside tackle in the coming weeks ahead of the season-opener against Bowling Green.