MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In the southeastern corner of Kentucky, just across the state border from West Virginia, lies a small town called Louisa, which has a population of just over 2,000 people. And by complete chance, two of the three new assistant coaches for the West Virginia football team hail from Louisa.
Gerad Parker, the Mountaineers’ new offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, knew head coach Neal Brown from their time at Kentucky, so Parker left Penn State to rejoin with Brown. Dontae Wright, on the other hand, left Western Michigan to become WVU’s new outside linebackers coach, but had no prior experience with Brown.
However, there may have been a little bug planted in Brown’s ear about Wright’s credentials.
“When I started to build a relationship with Neal, you’re always trading names of guys that you believe in and you feel strongly for,” Parker said. “Dontae is a guy that I had given him a little while back, so I think he keeps, like all these head coaches do now, a good list of names. Neal was able to come back to that name. I didn’t directly bring it up the first time, but after Dontae’s name was brought up, I fought for who I know will take care of it himself. He’s too talented and too good.”
Parker and Wright grew up together in Louisa, and fate may be the best way to describe how both ended up at West Virginia at the same time. Parker was hired in mid-January, but it wasn’t until a month later the outside linebackers job opened when Al Pogue left for Auburn. Nearly two weeks after Pogue’s departure, Wright was named to that position.
It wasn’t a package deal from the start — it’s just the way it worked out in the end.
“Gerad Parker may be my best friend, but he’s someone I look up to, also,” Wright said. “He is one of the best in the business, and I know I’m biased, but I’m confident in myself to say that, and now I’m blessed that I get to look up to him every single day here.”
The small-town relationship had a trickle down effect with the news both would coach at a Power 5 program, especially one so close to home, at the same time, according to Wright.
“I really can’t believe it. You don’t know how many tears we’ve cried over it,” Wright said. “I don’t know how many tears my sister has cried talking to his sister. Gerad said it himself, ‘I don’t know if my dad has ever shed a tear over me getting a job, but when I told him that you got this job working here, he cried his eyes out,’ and Rick Parker’s not a crier.”
Parker, 39, is two years older than Wright, so they overlapped high school for two years. Parker used to pick Wright up for school every day before Wright got his driver’s license, on their way to Lawrence County High School.
Move ahead to now, and Parker’s car — while his family was at Penn State — was still in Happy Valley, so Wright picked up Parker to head to work at Milan Puskar Stadium.
“It’s just funny how it’s all come full circle,” Wright said. “It’s so special, and it’s something we’ve talked about for a long, long time.”
Parker made a name for himself as a receiver at Lawrence County in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but he dabbled on the defensive side. An on-the-field confrontation at practice between Parker and Wright helps explain the relationship to a T, according to Wright.
“Gerad is a no-nonsense guy and I am too, but I like to have a good time and I like to play around a little bit when it’s not time to be serious,” Wright said. “I can remember we were getting ready for the playoffs and Phil Ratliff was coaching us. I was playing safety and Gerad was playing corner. I was doing something, messing around and not paying attention.
“He walked up and slapped the crap out of me in the helmet. I looked up and saw it was Gerad and he just started wearing me out. He was telling me what I should have been doing, and that’s what he’s been his whole life and I appreciate it.”
Wright even went on to say their relationship is more than just friends — they’re brothers.
“To have Dontae here with me to coach at this level together is going to be a cool thing for me and our families,” Parker said.
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