Following a media report Friday detailing disturbing social media messages posted more than a decade ago by New Mexico State University offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tyler Wright, the school kept Wright from the sideline during Saturday's rivalry game against New Mexico.
As reported by the Las Cruces Sun News, Wright's social media history contains more than 150 posts containing derogatory language about Africans and African-Americans, Hispanics, women and the LGBTQ+ community from when he was a student and football player at Tarleton State.
Minutes after the Sun-News reported on Wright's social media account history late Friday evening, NMSU athletics director Mario Moccia informed the paper that Wright will "not be with the team" as the school reviews the matter.
A survey of Wright’s account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, uncovered several potentially insensitive posts, including that Ugandan warlord and accused war criminal Joseph Kony "should be a college coach" because "he got thousands of black kids to do what he said." Wright also posted that he would "beat" a roommate if he was an LGBTQ+ individual and used a slur commonly used in reference to Blacks when announcing he was leaving for a vacation in Jamaica.
Wright did not respond to repeated requests for comment from the Sun-News on Friday night. Moccia told the Sun-News he was "not aware of anything" regarding Wright's posts, then later informed the paper that Wright will not be with the team as the matter is investigated. Head coach Tony Sanchez also declined to comment, as did a university athletics department communications spokesman.
The school is aware of the posts and looking into the matter, a New Mexico State University spokesman indicated to the Sun-News.
As reported by Nick Coppola of the Sun-News, the posts range from 2011 to 2014, when Wright was a wide receiver at Tarleton State in Stephenville, Texas. Wright played at Tarleton for four seasons, helping the then-Division II school become co-Lone Star Conference champions in 2013 and garnered 432 receiving yards in 2014. He became a football intern at the school in 2015.
The account, currently using the handle @CoachWrightNMSU, was created in July 2010 when Wright was a student at Granbury High School in Granbury, Texas, Coppola reported. The account bio includes his current position with the Aggies, as well as the school's imagery, logos and the hashtag #AggiesUp under an image of him in school apparel holding a football. The account matches up with the timeline of his coaching career with posts from his tenures at Permian High School from 2015 to 2018, UT-Permian Basin in 2018-19, TCU from 2019 to 2021 and New Mexico State from 2021-present.
Wright's posts include nearly 100 remarks on LGBTQ+ individuals, including homophobic slurs, more than 60 references to Ugandan warlord Kony – many of which include racial remarks about Africans and African Americans — at least a dozen degrading posts toward females, nine posts stereotyping and demeaning Hispanics and Latinos and five uses of common racial slurs for Blacks, Coppola reported.
Posts that could be considered racist, sexist or homophobic ceased around the time Wright began his coaching career as a wide receivers coach at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas, in the fall of 2015.
Though Wright's last personal post was on July 31, he has shared more than 150 posts from other accounts since then as of Friday evening, Coppola reported.
Wright is in his third season with the Aggies and his first as offensive coordinator. He's coaching an offense that ranks second-to-last in yards per game and seventh-to-last in points per game amongst FBS teams this season.
The Aggies are 1-4 this season following their 50-40 home loss Saturday to New Mexico.
Write was named to the 2024 American Football Coaches Association's 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute, which is "aimed at identifying and developing premier, future leaders in the football coaching profession," according to the AFCA website.
As reported by Coppola, Wright's annual salary increased from $70,000 to $200,000 on Feb. 1, when he was promoted to his current duties. His contract, which also contains clauses for bonuses of up to $85,000 per year, runs through June 2026 and contains language that he can be fired for cause for "commission of, or participation in any act, situation or occurrence" that the school judges to bring Wright into "public disrepute, scandal or ridicule" or engages in personal conduct that offends "prevailing social mores and values," including conduct that reflects "unfavorably on NMSU's reputation."
Coppola added that the New Mexico State website includes this statement as the university's Commitment to Equity, Inclusion and Diversity: "New Mexico State University is a proud and dedicated land-grant, space-grant, Hispanic Serving and Minority Serving Institution, located in the borderlands and Tribal lands regions. With priorities centering equity and inclusion, NMSU is committed to practices that leverage the insight emerging from the intersectional diversity of our students, staff, faculty, and communities that we serve and support, through outreach and Extension, research, and teaching."
