Grant Wiley - College Career

College Career

Wiley attended West Virginia University, and played for the West Virginia Mountaineers football team from 2000 to 2003. As a freshman in 2000, he earned Big East Rookie of the Year honors after recording 94 tackles and 14 tackles for losses, he recorded three interceptions, one reception for 26 yards against East Carolina and two against Idaho which he returned one for a touchdown. He was voted Second-team Freshman All-American and finished the season 12th in the conference in tackles and seventh in tackles-for-losses. His best performance of the season came against Idaho, when he recorded seven tackles, 2.5 sacks, and two interceptions. His first interceptions came in the third quarter, down 9-0, when he intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. The interception helped the Mountaineers record a come-from-behind victory.

In 2001, Wiley's sophomore season was a relatively quiet season for him. One of his best performances came in a 35-0 loss to Virginia Tech, where he had a key interception. He was awarded the Ideal Mountaineer Man Award by the West Virginia coaches at the end of the season.

As a junior in 2002, Wiley earned national recognition. One of his best games was against Temple, where the Mountaineers won 46-20. He recorded an interception in the game that he returned deep into Temple territory, and a forced fumble by quarterback Mike Frost. Wiley recorded 133 tackles and two interceptions for the season.

Wiley's senior season, 2003, was an average season for the Mountaineers. After starting the season 1-4, West Virginia played Rutgers in a must-win situation. Wiley helped the Mountaineers win 34-19, by recording 11 tackles and a diving interception. Also, in the 52-31 victory over Pitt, he recorded a key interception in the endzone. Wiley also recorded 18 tackles in the game against the Miami Hurricanes. A team captain, Wiley earned consensus All-American honors for the season, making him one of only a handful of Mountaineers to do so. He was also a finalist for the 2003 Bronko Nagurski Award, which was won by Oklahoma's Derrick Strait. Wiley led the nation that season with 7 forced fumbles and ranked third with 7.6 tackles per game. He finished the year with 158 tackles, 14 tackles for a loss, two interceptions, and nine forced fumbles.

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