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Brad Wright enters his second season as the head coach at Texas State University, the school from which he graduated in 1981, and from where he launched his coaching career.
In his first season as head coach, Wright's offensive attack produced a 2,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiver in the same season. The Bobcats also posted one of the school's top eight attendance averages for the fourth straight year.
Senior punter Chris MacDonald earned First-Team All-American honors, while record-setting wide receiver Cameron Luke earned All-Southland Conference First-Team honors. Running back Karrington Bush was named the SLC Freshman of the Year and a All-SLC Second-Team selection. In addition, Crawford May was a All-SLC Second-Team choice.
Nick Clark was named Texas State's first-ever Draddy Award Finalist, National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete, and a CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American Second Team selection.
Since the 2007 season ended, Wright instilled an improved work ethic into his team that carried over into spring workouts and he is hopeful these efforts will result in an improved record.
Wright was named head coach in the spring of 2007 after serving the three previous seasons as an assistant head coach, running back coach and special teams coordinator. During that span, the Pearsall native played a significant roll in the resurgence of Texas State's football program.
Prior to Wright returning to his alma mater, the Bobcats suffered 15 losing records in the 19 years of playing football as a member of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. But in his three years as an assistant head coach, Texas State posted a 21-15 record, won its first-ever Southland Conference championship in 2005 and advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Division I football playoffs.
Wright's association with winning at Texas State dates back to the late 1970s when he walked on to the Bobcat football program and went on to have a career in which he played on both sides of the ball for legendary coaches Bill Miller and Jim Wacker.
His coaching career began as a student assistant coach for Wacker's 1981 NCAA Division II national championship team.
After a stint as a graduate assistant at Louisiana-Lafayette and moves up the ladder in the Texas high school coaching ranks, Wright returned to his alma mater and has been a part of a program which has taken off on the field, at the turnstiles and in the community.
In addition to the 2005 playoff run, Texas State finished strong in 2006, winning four of its last six games including a 28-21 road victory at Sam Houston State. The win at Sam Houston State knocked the conference rival out of contention for a league title.
Texas State set attendance records for the second straight year in 2006, averaging 12,886 fans per game. The Bobcats have been active in the community too, taking part in campus projects such as Bobcat Build and serving mentorships at area elementary schools.
No other Southland Conference team won more league games than Texas State from 2004-06. The Bobcats were 11-6 (.647) during those three seasons in the highly competitive league.
Wright served as a running backs position coach for a unit which led the Southland Conference in total offense the past two seasons. His running backs in 2006 included Stan Zwinggi, who rushed for 735 yards, third-most in the Southland Conference.
In 2005, Wright's corps of running backs played a major role in the Bobcats being ranked 11th nationally in total offense (439.07 ypg), 15th in rushing yards (228.43 ypg) and eighth in scoring (37.00 ppg) among NCAA championship teams. Wright also served as Texas State's special teams coordinator and coached the All-Southland Conference First-Team punter three straight years (Cory Elolf in 2004 and 2005 as well as Chris MacDonald in 2006) and 2005 All-SLC First-Team place kicker Stan Jones.
In fact, Texas State also had 17 players named First-Team All-Southland Conference while 13 players were named to the All-SLC Second-Team during those three seasons.
In 2006, Texas State led the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision by having five players named to CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI Team. Texas State also led the way with seven student-athletes being selected for the Capital One All-Southland Conference Academic Team.
Prior to joining the Texas State staff, Wright spent the previous four seasons as the director of athletics and head football coach at New Braunfels' Canyon High School. He helped turn around a struggling Cougar football program. After two, one-win seasons his first two years at the school, Canyon went 7-2 in 2002 and advanced to the state quarterfinals in 2003, finishing with an 11-2 mark.
Wright also coached at East Bernard, where his squad was an area finalist in 1999 as well as at Karnes City which posted back-to-back third-place district finishes. He was also an assistant coach at El Campo for five years, helping the program to three district titles. Wright's prep coaching experience as an assistant coach also includes stops at Klein Oak and Pearland.
He originally walked-on at Texas State as a wide receiver, played a season at running back and then moved to the other side of the ball where he was a defensive leader at free safety and was a member of the Bobcats' 1980 Lone Star Conference championship team.
Wright earned his bachelor's degree in physical education from Texas State in 1981. He is married to the former Kim Pesek, a 1996 Texas State alum. They are the parents of a daughter, Paige Elizabeth, born in October of 2005.
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