Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea met with the media on Monday and provided some insight on Vanderbilt safety De’Rickey Wright, who rejoined the program this summer after entering the transfer portal and committing to Texas A&M.

Wright joins a secondary that will make him work for playing time, but Lea has optimism that the veteran can handle it.

How much Wright sees the field and where that playing time comes is still to be determined, though.

“He can play a high safety, obviously on third down he can do a lot of things for us so I think that’s still kind of sorting out,” Lea said of Wright’s role. “We’ve got work to do on our depth chart on the back end.”

Wright is in the midst of a battle for playing time alongside safeties Dontae Carter, Marlen Sewell, Jaylen Gilbert. The Gadsden, Alabama, native’s leg up; experience.

The veteran secondary piece has appeared in 35 career games while piling up 131 tackles in four seasons at Vanderbilt. Wright will don his third jersey number on West End as he holds more pedigree than most of Vanderbilt’s roster.

“We just have a bunch of guys that are kinda looking for what that role’s gonna be, De’Rickey’s a part of that conversation,” Lea said. “His game experience and his football intelligence help him. Like I said; I think he’s a guy that you can do a lot of different things with on third down so we’ll be excited to see him featured in those packages too.”

Wright made an impact last season with two interceptions in a week zero win against Hawaii, but won’t have the same walk to immediate playing time in 2024.

The veteran will have to be ready when his number is called, though.