Nebraska linebacker Javin Wright’s ‘hell and back’ journey from blood clots to budding Blackshirt

Javin Wright prepared to board a plane bound for Norman. In the third year and first defensive coordinator of his Nebraska football career, he had earned a role covering kickoffs at rival Oklahoma.

The son of a former Blackshirt, Wright noticed, before boarding, one leg had swelled up. He felt a little pain, and perhaps the instinctive knowledge of what the swelling and the pain meant.

He thought about revealing the swelling to no one. Wright ignored that impulse and told a teammate. You’ve got to get that checked out, the teammate said, and he listened.

Wright also never boarded the plane. Or played another snap in the 2021 season.

Blood clots. Again. Surgery to remove them for a second time. The pain came and went, although once, when he had clots, Wright couldn’t move his leg and had to be carried to the ER.

So Wright waited, studied football, prayed and plotted a return.

“Never,” Wright said when asked this summer if he ever thought about retiring from the game.

“Never,” he said again. Wright believed he’d play a lot more football at Nebraska.

He has. And now, one of NU’s inside starting linebacker jobs has his name written on it.

“I’ve weathered the storm,” Wright said. “I’ve already been through hell and back several times. Now that I’m in this position today, I’m mentally strong. And people can never take that away from me.”

You look at Nebraska’s defensive front, see three returning starters and the depth beyond that, and check the box.

You look at NU’s secondary, which technically lost two starters and but has four starters coming back, and probably check that box, too.

At linebacker, your pencil might hover above the box. Nick and Luke have left the building.

Nick Henrich and Luke Reimer, blue chip and walk-on, combined for 499 career tackles and 34 tackles for loss. They set a standard for the position. They created a backlog, too, of guys waiting to get on the field once they left.

Wright is one of those Huskers. So is John Bullock. A blue chip, and a walk-on. And like Nick and Luke, they’ve been with Nebraska’s program since 2019. Wright is 24. Bullock is 23.

“We’ve been here a long time,” Bullock said of Wright. “Been good buddies throughout. That’s one of my guys.”

Together, they’ve seen a few things. Like position changes. And different schemes. And coaches who had one vision for their skillset, followed by coaches who had different ideas.

Now, finally, they’ve settled into middle linebacker. Wright had 51 tackles last season. Bullock had 50. They’re next up, and ready to full Nick and Luke’s shoes.

“I’m hoping to take a big jump in the fall,” Bullock said.

“I’m not confused all the time,” Wright said.

Bullock is a Matt Rhule special, a guy who’s fast, smart, tough and maybe a little undersized, getting moved in spring 2023 to linebacker so NU could use his smart, fast and tough traits to good use.

Wright, the son of former Nebraska and NFL defensive back Toby Wright, is smart, fast, and tough, too. He also arrived at NU as a bit of unicorn, a 6-foot-4 athlete who could play corner, safety, edge rusher, almost anything. And coaches tried him almost everywhere. “Baptized” into football by his dad, Wright obliged, but constantly had to shift gears.

“I was focusing on too much,” Wright said. “I couldn’t get all the techniques down.”

His body rebelled, too. Twice, he had blood clot surgery. He had two labrum surgeries, too. Chipped bones, a torn ankle tendon, and an MCL tear in his knee, as well.

“He’s dealt with a lot of crap,” Bullock said.

Wright tried to make lemonade out of the recovery time. He studied every position on a defense, learning the roles and responsibilities for his teammates.

“I just knew football,” Wright said. “I knew what was going on.”

His knowledge and versatility serve him well in NU’s 3-3-5 defense. Inside linebackers do a lot of different things in the scheme, and Wright said he’s suited for the variety.

“I know I can do everything,” Wright said. “I can blitz, I can cover, I can play man coverage, I can drop back, I can tackle, I can get off all the blocks. But it’s good to know that I’m in a designated position and be able to focus on all the techniques that I need to do.”

Bullock feels the same way. Both of them added weight this offseason, the better to withstand a Big Ten schedule full of big offensive lines and physical punishment.

And they may play more snaps, this season, than Henrich and Reimer did in 2023 because, out of Mikai Gbayor, NU has little seasoned depth at the position.

So Bullock and Wright sat for their longest interviews, roughly 20 minutes, inside Hawks Championship Center July 30. Reporters peppered both with questions about the scheme and the big shoes they have to fill.

“We’ve been through a lot but I think that has made us even stronger,” Bullock said, “and I think that has allowed us to trust each other even more. I expect great things from us.”

Wright fielded more queries about his potential and injury-riddled journey. While averaging 29 snaps per game, he was around the ball a lot in 2023, forcing a fumble and snagging two interceptions.

He might double his average number of snaps in 2024, reaping the rewards of a bet he placed on himself years before.

Wright’s been down. He never counted himself out.

“My support system — and me and my belief system — I just knew I was going to play football again no matter what,” Wright said. “I’d do anything to get back on the field.”