Clint Trickett, a former Florida State and West Virignia quarterback, is gearing up for his second season as East Mississippi Community College’s quarterbacks coach.
If you recall, EMCC was the school featured in the highly successful Netflix original series, “Last Chance U.” ESPN caught up with Trickett this week to get his take on watching himself on TV, what’s next for the program, and his now-famous quarterbacks who now play for SEC teams.
You can click here to read up on everything, but we’re going to focus on the latter topic — quarterbacks John Franklin III (Auburn) and Wyatt Roberts (Mississippi State).
Here was the question:
The documentary devoted a lot of time to your quarterbacks. We got to see a lot, but how was going through that season with John Franklin III and Wyatt Roberts?
And here’s Trickett’s answer:
You saw how Wyatt was portrayed on the show, and that’s how he is. He’s exactly what you’d want your son to be. If I could have a Wyatt Roberts every year for the rest of my career, I’ll be the happiest coach in college football.
I helped bring John in from Florida State and had to help him through everything. He’s coming in expecting to start and he didn’t. Wyatt didn’t let go of the job, plain and simple. That’s a tough deal. You’re thinking, ‘This is my one chance to move on and I messed it up, I’m never going to play, they won’t recruit a backup.’ I had to calm him down and get him through that. He realized he had to make the most of his chances, and he did. When Auburn came to see him, he tore it up and got his offer and he’s competing for the starting job there.
Wyatt’s now at Mississippi State. Just found out Dan Mullen personally came and saw him last week and had him come walk on when one of their quarterbacks transferred. So both quarterbacks are playing in the SEC, and I’m pretty excited about that.
Wyatt, a sophomore, joined the Bulldogs earlier this month and will likely serve as the scout team quarterback as a walk-on.
Auburn coach Gus Malzahn announced Thursday that sophomore Sean White would be the Week 1 starter, beating out Franklin and senior Jeremy Johnson, but he added that the quarterback race was “close.”
Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).
