Kyle Wright

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Kyle Wright attempts a pass during a 2005 game at Clemson University.

Kyle Wright (born October 18, 1984 in Danville, California) is the current starting quarterback for the University of Miami football team.

1 High school career
2 Profile
3 University of Miami career
- 3.1 2005 season
- 3.2 2006 season
4 References
5 External links

[edit] High school career

Wright played his high school football at Monte Vista High School in Danville, California. Wright was widely regarded as the nation's top high school quarterback for the 2002-2003 season, during which he was named the Gatorade National High School Football Player of the Year, as well as SuperPrep National Player of the Year. With all of these accolades, Wright was the most heavily recruited player of the 2002-2003 recruiting season.

Ultimately, he chose Miami over such other schools as Florida State, Southern Cal, and Tennessee.

[edit] Profile

Wright combines prototypical size with a very strong arm and 4.6 40 speed. As a result, many commentators had predicted stardom for the Miami quarterback, with some suggesting he could turn out to be the best quarterback to ever play at the university. ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. had gone on record as predicting that Wright could be a future number one overall draft pick in the NFL. However, as a result of Wright's struggles during his first two seasons, many draft experts view Wright as an "underachiever" and no longer regard him as a future first round draft pick.[1]

[edit] University of Miami career

Wright graduated from high school a semester early and enrolled at the University of Miami for the 2003 spring semester amidst great expectation that he would be the next great quarterback at 'Quarterback U.' and continue in the lineage of Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Steve Walsh, Craig Erickson, Gino Torretta, and Ken Dorsey.

Wright was redshirted for the 2003 season and spent the following season as Brock Berlin's backup before an ankle injury and an allergic reaction to a bee sting effectively ended his season after only a few games.

With Berlin having graduated, Miami's starting quarterback job was open heading into the 2005 season. During spring practice, Wright performed well and earned the starting position over redshirt freshman Kirby Freeman.

[edit] 2005 season

Wright's first season as a starter was a bit uneven. A highlight came on November 12, 2005, when Wright tied a school-record by tossing 5 touchdown passes in a 47-17 blowout victory against Wake Forest.

However, Wright struggled badly against some of the better teams on Miami's schedule (12 of his 18 touchdown passes came against teams with a losing record: Duke, Temple, and Wake Forest), and led the team to a 3-loss season and a 40-3 blowout loss to LSU in the Peach Bowl, Miami's worst bowl defeat ever. With Wright at quarterback, the Hurricanes also finished with their lowest ranking in the polls in the new millennium and suffered a loss to their archrival, Florida State, for the first time since 1999.

However, Wright still managed to have a promising and productive season, as he led the ACC in touchdown passes (18), was second in pass efficiency to Virginia Tech's Marcus Vick, and was the only Honorable Mention All-ACC selection at quarterback.

[edit] 2006 season

Expectations were big for Wright heading into the 2006 season. Wright was selected as the quarterback on the Preseason All-ACC team [2], and finished second to Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson in ballotting for the ACC Preseason Player of the Year. [3] Wright was also named to the Maxwell Award watchlist, and was projected as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate.

Wright failed to meet the big preseason expectations for him, his struggles mirroring those of the team in general, which fell out of national championship contention by the third game of the season. In 9 games, Wright threw for just 1,655 yards, 8 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions, and completed 60.8% of his passes.

As he had been during much of the season, Wright was booed continuously during Miami's 17-10 homecoming loss to Virginia Tech, a game in which he threw two critical interceptions and played what was viewed as the worst game of his career.^[1] As Wright left the field, angry Miami fans berated him. Wright's father, who was in the area, then engaged in a profanity laced tirade with the fans, and was restrained by Orange Bowl security and threatened with arrest by Miami Athletic Director when he started to exhibit aggressive behavior. After cooling off, Mr. Wright stated he was merely trying to stick up for his son. ^[2]^[3]

Wright fractured his thumb during the loss to Virginia Tech, and the injury kept him out of the team's game the next week at Maryland. He underwent thumb surgery a week later, which will cause him to miss the remainder of the 2006 season.^[4]