"I recruited him," said Wilson, who came to the Sooners coaching staff before the 2005 season after five years at Colorado.
Wright, the Buffaloes' senior defensive end, is No. 2 nationally in sacks with nine, trailing Washington State's Mkristo Bruce, who has 10.
Wright played at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in 2003 after a redshirt season. He was not recruited by Oklahoma or Oklahoma State, but wanted to play in the Big 12 Conference.
"It basically came down to Missouri and Colorado," said Wright, who graduated from Southeast High School. "I visited Colorado, and I really liked what coach Wilson was telling me."
Wright said he was "kind of hurt" that OSU didn't recruit him, mostly because he wanted to stay in the state.
"I didn't think OU would recruit me," Wright said. "They didn't need any defensive ends at the time. I kind of expected OSU to talk to me.
"But they didn't really have a reason to. I didn't have the type of year I was capable of, and they're not going to take a kid just because he's from Oklahoma.
"But playing there would have been like a dream."
Former NEO coach Dale Patterson, who is now the assistant director of football operations at OSU, said Wright is a perfect example of what a player can do for himself by working hard at the junior-college level.
"He's one of the great stories of a guy who goes to NEO and takes care of business," Patterson said. "He worked hard and was able to go on to a higher level.
"He's an example of someone who does what is right and has good things happen."
Doing what is right wasn't always the first choice for Wright, which in the end might have led him to NEO and allowed him to turn it around.
"My grades were horrible," Wright said. "In high school, I was mostly just chasing girls and not caring about anything.
"When I got to NEO, I began to develop my relationship with Jesus Christ and change my behavior. I still had really bad study habits, but since I wasn't out chasing girls, I had time to sit down and type up a paper or whatever."
Saturday, when the Buffs visit Norman, it will be Wright's last game so close to home. The response from friends and family has been even higher than he expected.
"I probably have about 100 people watching this game," Wright said. "I couldn't get enough tickets if I wanted to."
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