Grant Wiley
October 28, 2002 10:27 AM | General
Mountaineer Illustrated
There was an underlying factor that fueled linebacker Grant Wiley’s breakthrough freshman season in which he captured the BIG EAST rookie of the year award.
He just likes to play with the big kids.
"When I was younger, I used to play sandlot football with my older brother and his friends all the time," says Wiley. "It was always so much fun."
Now, two years after his rookie season and some 12 years after playing pickup ball with the older crowd in Trappe, Pa., the junior has the same undeniable talent that allowed him to star with the senior circuit.
The only difference is he’s the big kid now. He’s the one that some freshman looks up to and it’s his jersey that a young fan from the Northern Panhandle is wearing.
Wiley is certainly suited well for the job, considering the role models he has followed so far in his life.
He personally sees his two older siblings as the two most influential people in his life, a realization that has always been there but was never previously admitted, according to Wiley.
"I wasn’t exactly a cupcake to grow up with," he recalls. "I always was causing trouble and probably annoying the hell out of my brother in particular.
"I don’t think they realized that I’ve always looked up to them; I just never had the chance to show it."
Such a statement means that Wiley has shed that pain-in-the-behind younger brother image, which is a big step in the maturation process that anyone with a sibling can relate to. He admits that his relationship with his older brother, Brett, who played football at Clarion, and sister, Brooke, is better than ever nowadays.
"My brother is hilarious and I think we’ve gotten real close since I’ve been in college," Wiley says. "I’ll always admire everything he does."
Although not a brother to him by blood, Wiley similarly aspired to be like second-round NFL draft pick and former WVU weak-side linebacker Barrett Green when Green was a senior and Wiley just a true freshman.
The two boasted similar styles of play and a rugged, tough-guy image that even Mr. T would envy. Wiley even incorporated the current Detroit Lions starter in choosing his number, figuring that both digits of Green’s No. 33 equaled six.
"As far as a senior leader, I really looked up Barrett," says Wiley. "He gave me advice and said things to me that I still believe in and use when I’m on the field today. It’s an honor to follow somebody of that stature who contributed so much to this program."
Much like his predecessor, Wiley gives his all every time he steps onto the field. The lone problem in Wiley’s career so far is when he has not been on the field due to injury.
He broke his leg in the 2000 Music City Bowl but regained enough stamina to return at the start of the 2001 season. Then he pulled his hamstring during the season opener against Boston College. As a test to his character, Wiley still managed to amass four more tackles than the previous season in nine injury-plagued games, three less than he played in 2000.
Still, Wiley points out one thing to everyone who tagged him injury-prone during and after a sophomore season he would like to forget: it is history.
"How can I prevent two 300-pound guys from trouncing on my leg when I’m stuck in a pile trying to make a tackle?" he says. "It was something freak that happened. And my hamstring was something that was a result of my leg being weak.
"Getting labeled bothered me but the people who say those things are usually the ones who’ve never played before and don’t know what it’s like to be on the football field."
Wiley is the kind of guy who speaks like he’s been there before, extremely modest and centered on the team aspect of football.
He doesn’t have an elaborate list of things he’d like to accomplish over the course of his promising career and when prompted to speak of such things, Wiley gathers a dumbfounded look on his face, as if his answer was as obvious as love of football. "Win," he replies.
His unglamourous attitude is most likely derived from his roots as he grew up in a suburb just outside of the blue-collar city of Philadelphia.
A star running back and linebacker at Perkiomen Valley High, Wiley grew up a Philly sports fan and he can’t contemplate how his current teammate and Cherry Hill, N.J., native Avon Cobourne is a diehard Washington Redskins fan, the arch-nemesis of the Philadelphia Eagles.
"He lives like not even a half-hour from Philadelphia," says Wiley, jokingly. "I think he has an identity crisis or something."
Wiley remembers looking down at the Eagles players in admiration at Veterans Stadium when he was young in hopes of one day being an NFL star.
And in today’s game, the many young fans who don his jersey will gaze down at the most fired-up Mountaineer, the one that is leading his team out of the tunnel, running towards the far corner of the field, pumping his fists in excitement, and will say, "I wanna be like Grant Wiley someday."
