Scooby Wright III: The Heart of Arizona Football

Scooby Wright III has accomplished so much thus far in his college career, he has captured the hearts of the team, coaches and especially the fans and he proved that stars next to your name can mean absolutely nothing!

Scooooooby! I never thought I would be yelling that in my living room, at the Grunions my local Pac-12 hangout, in my car and at the football games, but I was! The funny thing is that I still find myself saying “Scoooby” even in the offseason, especially when I see him tweeting a Valentine Matt Dudek (@AZ_Matty_D) created for him or helping recruit possible future Arizona Wildcats. You can follow him on Twitter at @TwoStarScoob, the handle is self explanatory as he was extremely underrated by Rivals.com as just a two star recruit.

His smile lights up the room, in contrast his game face paint would scare anyone, and this man means business! I had the privilege of working as a Spotter for the UCLA game last season and I felt a sense of Wildcat pride every time I needed to point to No. 33 for the tackle announcement.

‘You mean, nobody is recruiting this guy?'” Rodriguez said of his initial reaction

Born Phillip “Scooby” Wright III, raised in Santa Rosa, California, attended a private Catholic boys school, Cardinal Newman High School. His former high school is located about an hour drive on the 101 freeway north of San Francisco. In high school Scooby played two sports, football and Track (Shot Put). He played two positions on as a star on his Cardinal football team; linebacker on defense and a running back on offense.

In case you missed how he got his nickname, his dad Phil (mom Annette) used to call him his “little Scooby- Doo” when he was a baby. The nickname stuck in the family and he is rarely called by his given name Phillip by them or anyone else.

It brightens my day each time I see patients in their hospital beds smiling broadly with Scooby at their side during a visit, which the team does during the season before games. Even in the offseason, I just read the other day that Scooby visited the UA Medical center to check in on a very special patient, Dante Zelaya who is suffering from a rare form of brain cancer residing in the central nervous system (Go to http://www.gofundme.com/TheInvincibleDante to give to his cause).

It seemed written in the stars for Scooby to come the University of Arizona and play; his favorite player is Tedy Bruschi. Wright committed to Arizona in June 2012. According to the Tucson Citizen, there was never any question he was going to be a Wildcat (From the Tucson Citizen-Anthony Gimino):

"“They believed in me from the beginning,” Wright said. “There was never any gray. They knew they wanted me and offered me right away and I said, ‘I’m not going to mess with anybody else.'” – Scooby"

Coach Rich Rod loved what he saw in Scooby, he wanted to keep his find a secret (from USA Today):

"“It was like, ‘You mean, nobody is recruiting this guy?'” Rodriguez said of his initial reaction. “It was one of those deals where you watch and you’re like, ‘He’s got size, he’s a tough guy, he runs around … let’s offer him and hope no one else does. Can we keep it a secret?'”"

Well, coach, the secret is out now! Opposing coaches have watched and are probably still watching plenty of tape helping their quarterbacks and offensive line strategize on how they can shut down Wright. Award boards across the country were all impressed as they watched tape of Wright making 153 tackles (163 including the Fiesta Bowl) and sacking quarterbacks 14 times. He is first in the national rankings in tackles (11.6 per game) and fifth in tackles for a loss (2.1 per game), and fourth in sacks (1.0 per game). Wright led Arizona to a Pac-12 West championship and finished No. 10 in the nation in the NCAA championship playoff rankings.

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Who can forget one of the top plays nationally in the NCAA, the miraculous game saving ripping out of the football from the Heisman Trophy winner QB Marcus Mariota’s golden Heisman hands? Such a pivotal moment for the football program, upsetting a top team in the nation and at their home and against the “best” team in the Pac-12 who ended up earning a spot in the national championship. It will go down as one of the best plays ever in Arizona Wildcat history.

The season ended in what some would say was an avoidable loss to the Boise State Bronco’s. The loss came complete with a Bronco Statue of Liberty play performed perfectly and some quarterback mistakes (interceptions and clock management). That said, the silver lining in the season, which helped us all get over the bowl loss was all the awards Scooby Wright receiveed, one after another and I mean it was a boat load! Let me just list all NINE of them for you all:

Unanimous All-American (2014)
Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year (2014) -First sophomore to ever win
First-team All-Pac-12 (2014)
CBS Sports Defensive Player of the Year (2014)
SB Nation Defensive Player of the Year (2014)
Bronko Nagurski Trophy (2014)
Rotary Lombardi Award (2014)
Chuck Bednarik Award (2014)
Jack Lambert Award (2014)

After being awarded the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, a humble Wright said he wouldn’t have even been in the running for the award had it not been for his teammates, “We had a great year with the program and we haven’t had a 10-win season in a while.” Wright is the second to take home the Nagurski and the first player in Arizona history to win the Lombardi Award. Take that in for a second folks, that is totally impressive!

Just last week, Scooby Wright III name has been reported as a top 25 candidate eligible for the Heisman Trophy next season along with fellow Wildcat Nick Wilson. Patrick Schmidt of Fansided’s College Football fan site, lists Wright at No. 15 and Wilson at No. 21.

Like me, you may have wondered, “why didn’t Scooby declare for the NFL draft?” The answer is simple, as a true sophomore, he is not eligible. I feel for him, as this would be an opportune moment to enter the draft coming of the season he just had. As a parent, I think its great that he can come back and get another year of education, mature as a man, enjoy college life (don’t we all want to go back to that time in our lives?), and get even better if that’s possible. As a fan, I am ecstatic! I cannot wait to cheer on the Wildcats and belt out “SCOOOOBYYY” for another whole season.

Maybe last year wasn’t a “surprise” as most media outlets would suggest. May I suggest that this year Coach Rich Rod and his star linebacker recruited a whole bunch of their kind of guys, and the Wildcats prove that even though they don’t have the #1 recruiting class according to “stars” attributed to incoming players. And Hopefully, our Arizona Wildcat football team has the number one class for the 2015 season according the stars metaphorically, just no one knows it yet!

Scooby Vitals:

Name: Phillip “Scooby” Wright III
College: Arizona Number: 33
Height: 6-0 Weight: 230
Position: ILB Position 2: OLB
Class/Draft Year: So/2017
40 Low: 4.75 40 Time: 4.86 40 High: 4.97
Rated number 3 out of 103 ILB’s 999 / 2325 TOTAL

Scooby Highlights from 2014

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