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What It's Like to Play Cornerback in the ACC
DURHAM, N.C. – Leon Wright spent six weeks shadowing nurses at a Raleigh hospital this summer, piquing his interest in the medical profession. But before he can ponder those possibilities more thoroughly, Wright has another assignment foremost on his mind: shadowing opposing wide receivers as the most experienced defensive back on the Duke football roster.
Wright has been patrolling the secondary since his freshman season, when he served as an understudy to All-ACC cornerback John Talley while also returning kicks. He’s been a starter since his sophomore season and has more career interceptions (five) than anyone else on the 2009 roster. Entering his senior year, his chief medical concern is not a future career but the continued stability of a hamstring he tore at Vanderbilt last season. It forced him to the sideline for the final five games, but after careful rehabilitation over nine months he has pronounced himself fit for his final collegiate campaign.
What’s it take to excel at cornerback in the ACC? Wright answers almost as quickly as he moves into coverage on an all-star wideout: “You’ve got to have confidence and a short memory, because the other guys are good too, and you’re not going to win every time.
“As long as you compete and are confident and have the heart and will to want to win, you’ll be fine. I think that helps me a lot. Growing up I was always one of the smaller guys, and I think playing with bigger kids helped me build up my heart and confidence, and it just carried on through high school and now here.
“The hardest thing about it is that everyone else is just as good as you are. One screw-up and it can be a touchdown, so you have to be mentally tough and confident and know what you are doing. You have to be mentally focused on every play and play fast — that will lead you to success.”
Selective memory may be paramount in getting over nightmare moments, but Wright still hasn’t forgotten one disaster from his freshman season. The Florida State Seminoles visited Wallace Wade Stadium for a midseason contest and Wright came up with his first collegiate interception, while teammate Talley returned a pick 50 yards for a score. But the lasting memory for Wright is that Duke’s defensive backfield was burned for five touchdown passes in a 51-24 defeat.
“They kept calling the same route on me and I couldn’t figure out how to stop it,” Wright admits. “Now I can tell what route is run on me and I can figure out how to stop it if I see it again. I can adjust myself by alignments. But I didn’t understand that my freshman year.”
Extensive game experience, heavy-duty film sessions and exhaustive coaching from assistant Derek Jones have Wright feeling convinced that he can handle whatever a defense throws at him and the Blue Devils this year.
“I feel very confident and I think that’s a big key to our defense,” he says. “And that’s a big key to my position. If you don’t have confidence out there, your guy is going to run right through you. Besides that, my experience allows me to concentrate more on what the other team is doing because I understand my own skill level and know the tricks of the trade for what I need to do to be successful at my position. My experience level really helps me a lot and allows me to teach the younger guys some of the things they don’t know yet.
“I have been left on those islands before, and all I know is that it’s one-on-one and you have to find a way to win. You have to do whatever it takes to win. When you have help out there, you have to know where it is and rely on it and don’t try to be the hero every time. As long as you trust in your teammates, everything will be fine.”
Wright considers it a weekly challenge to play cornerback in the ACC, as well as a blessing to compete against some of the best athletes in the country following his all-star prep career in Florida and his boyhood years of emulating Hall of Famer Barry Sanders in his backyard games.
“Running out of the tunnel is an unbelievable experience for me,” he says, trying to explain the thrill of game day that he finds so exhilarating. “My first time running out was a night game, and just seeing the fireworks and the smoke was unbelievable. It’s a feeling you can’t explain to anyone. You have to experience it for yourself. And then on the football field just making the plays that you’ve always dreamed about making when you were playing backyard football, pretending to be someone. Just making those plays in reality is a highlight.”
Wright has been patrolling the secondary since his freshman season, when he served as an understudy to All-ACC cornerback John Talley while also returning kicks. He’s been a starter since his sophomore season and has more career interceptions (five) than anyone else on the 2009 roster. Entering his senior year, his chief medical concern is not a future career but the continued stability of a hamstring he tore at Vanderbilt last season. It forced him to the sideline for the final five games, but after careful rehabilitation over nine months he has pronounced himself fit for his final collegiate campaign.
What’s it take to excel at cornerback in the ACC? Wright answers almost as quickly as he moves into coverage on an all-star wideout: “You’ve got to have confidence and a short memory, because the other guys are good too, and you’re not going to win every time.
“As long as you compete and are confident and have the heart and will to want to win, you’ll be fine. I think that helps me a lot. Growing up I was always one of the smaller guys, and I think playing with bigger kids helped me build up my heart and confidence, and it just carried on through high school and now here.
“The hardest thing about it is that everyone else is just as good as you are. One screw-up and it can be a touchdown, so you have to be mentally tough and confident and know what you are doing. You have to be mentally focused on every play and play fast — that will lead you to success.”
Selective memory may be paramount in getting over nightmare moments, but Wright still hasn’t forgotten one disaster from his freshman season. The Florida State Seminoles visited Wallace Wade Stadium for a midseason contest and Wright came up with his first collegiate interception, while teammate Talley returned a pick 50 yards for a score. But the lasting memory for Wright is that Duke’s defensive backfield was burned for five touchdown passes in a 51-24 defeat.
“They kept calling the same route on me and I couldn’t figure out how to stop it,” Wright admits. “Now I can tell what route is run on me and I can figure out how to stop it if I see it again. I can adjust myself by alignments. But I didn’t understand that my freshman year.”
Extensive game experience, heavy-duty film sessions and exhaustive coaching from assistant Derek Jones have Wright feeling convinced that he can handle whatever a defense throws at him and the Blue Devils this year.
“I feel very confident and I think that’s a big key to our defense,” he says. “And that’s a big key to my position. If you don’t have confidence out there, your guy is going to run right through you. Besides that, my experience allows me to concentrate more on what the other team is doing because I understand my own skill level and know the tricks of the trade for what I need to do to be successful at my position. My experience level really helps me a lot and allows me to teach the younger guys some of the things they don’t know yet.
“I have been left on those islands before, and all I know is that it’s one-on-one and you have to find a way to win. You have to do whatever it takes to win. When you have help out there, you have to know where it is and rely on it and don’t try to be the hero every time. As long as you trust in your teammates, everything will be fine.”
Wright considers it a weekly challenge to play cornerback in the ACC, as well as a blessing to compete against some of the best athletes in the country following his all-star prep career in Florida and his boyhood years of emulating Hall of Famer Barry Sanders in his backyard games.
“Running out of the tunnel is an unbelievable experience for me,” he says, trying to explain the thrill of game day that he finds so exhilarating. “My first time running out was a night game, and just seeing the fireworks and the smoke was unbelievable. It’s a feeling you can’t explain to anyone. You have to experience it for yourself. And then on the football field just making the plays that you’ve always dreamed about making when you were playing backyard football, pretending to be someone. Just making those plays in reality is a highlight.”
