Wake Forest Athletics
Game Program Feature: Deacon Unleashed
10/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 11, 2010
This article was originally published in the Oct. 9 edition of Kickoff, the official gameday magazine of Wake Forest football.
By Evan Lepler
Offensive linemen, beware!
Kyle Wilber is usually a relaxed, soft-spoken and friendly individual, and he has more than enough talent to beat you, even when he is in a good mood.
Make him angry, and you are doomed.
When current Louisville Head Coach Charlie Strong--then an assistant at Florida--saw him practice in high school, the Gator recruiter told Wilber, "You are a good player, and a great player mad."
It turns out that Strong witnessed Wilber on a day when he was particularly perturbed.
"That day in practice, I sort of got into a fight with an offensive lineman," Wilber remembers. "So the rest of practice, it was just me and him going at it.
"And I got the best of him."
Wilber, now a redshirt junior defensive end for the Demon Deacons, laughs when recalling the story. Having matured into a leader for the Wake Forest defense, his current teammates enjoy when his mean streak bubbles up. A firm believer in playing with integrity, the line-benders of the ACC are those most likely to feel his wrath.
"Cheap shots and penalties," says Wilber, explaining what can really get under his skin. "I feel like I play fair, so why don't other people play fair? And if you need to cheat to win, obviously I got a problem with that."
With excellent speed and leverage complementing his sturdy 6-5, 235-pound frame, there are very few opposing tackles in the conference that Wilber has failed to beat around the edge. Through the first five games of the season, only one player in the nation has managed more tackles for a loss than Wilber.
On his own team, he is arguably the premier defensive playmaker, a relentless disruptor who could be destined for All-ACC recognition upon season's end.
"Kyle Wilber's one of those players when sometimes you just say `wow,'" says redshirt sophomore linebacker Riley Haynes. "He's got that `wow' factor. He's an unbelievable player. His motor never stops. He's not an overly huge guy, he's not always as big as the other defensive ends, but he'll never stop. He never takes a play off. When you see a player like that, it brings everybody else up."
Two seasons ago, as a redshirt freshman, Wilber was a relatively unknown, collegiate infant, thrown into the ballhawking defensive lineup that included Aaron Curry, Alphonso Smith, Stanley Arnoux and Chip Vaughn, all of whom were selected in the first four rounds of the 2008 NFL Draft. Wilber's palpable potential earned him significant playing time early in the season and eventually vaulted him into a starting role for the final seven contests of the year.
As the only freshman to earn a start for that 2008 defense, Wilber simply aimed to fit in amongst the plethora of strong personalities.
"That year, I really didn't have to say anything," explains Wilber, "because we had Aaron Curry, who was destroying people and making everyone follow along with him. And I was just trying to make sure that I wasn't messing up and being the weak [link] on the field.
"There were so many great leaders. And now, they are kind of challenging me to be a leader."
Whether he likes it or not, his high level of play has thrust him into a position of prominence as a defensive voice. Though he prefers to let his actions speak for themselves, he also has gradually become more and more comfortable serving as a vocal authority both on the field and behind closed doors.
"He's growing into a leader because the defense respects him and listens to him," says redshirt senior center and team captain Russell Nenon. "As an offensive player, I do respect a person like that. In the locker room, he's a great guy, and on the field, he's a heck of a player."
Despite his stature, Wilber tries to shy away from the spotlight. After a ferocious individual rush that produces a sack, he is eager to share credit with his 10 other defensive companions.
Even when he suffered a painful injury in 2009, his initial reaction on the field exemplified his desire to avoid attention. He wanted to do anything he could to keep the focus away from his ailment and on the rest of his teammates.
"I knew something was wrong," Wilber says, recalling the moment against Stanford when he broke his fibula. "I rolled and grabbed my leg. I tried to stand up, but when I stood up and tried to put pressure on my leg, I heard something pop. I just hopped off to the sideline."
When he arrived to the bench, the trainers asked him, "Why didn't you just stay on the ground?"
He replied, "I didn't want to have that Remember the Titans movie [moment], where they take me off on the stretcher. I didn't want to be the center of attention."
Though he missed the next seven games while recuperating, his leg healed sufficiently enough for him to re-enter the lineup at the tail-end of the year, evoking comparisons to another noteworthy former Deacon defender who overcame the same injury.
In 2002, Calvin Pace, now a member of the New York Jets, fractured his fibula in the penultimate regular season game, yet returned approximately five weeks later to help the Deacons defeat the Oregon Ducks, 38-17, in the Seattle Bowl. Pace proceeded to become just the third Wake football player ever to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
While it would be premature to decree Wilber as a sure-fire top draftee with more than a year and a half of eligibility remaining, Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe recognizes the immense value of his explosive defensive end and acknowledges that the disappointing 2009 season can partly be traced to Wilber's unfortunate injury.
"There's not anything that contributed to us being 5-7 more than losing Kyle Wilber last year," Grobe admits. "He was the only guy that I looked at last spring and in the preseason that I thought was a real, big-play, this-guy-is-going-to-take-the-ball-away-from-people [type of player]. And when he went down, we just lost that ability...because he's usually good for something big every game. Whether it'd be a sack, a tackle for a loss, a fumble. He'll chase somebody down to turn a big play into just an OK gain. Stuff like that."
Grateful to have him back in the lineup, 100 percent healthy, it is easy for Grobe to extol Wilber's virtues.
"He's a really smart guy," admires Grobe. "He's got great pad level. He never plays too high. And he's got good explosiveness and his foot speed is fast enough for him to play linebacker for us. He can really run. I wish somehow we could pack some pounds on him. He would be better if he was a little bit heavier. But he's one of those guys who really doesn't need it. He reminds you a little bit of Matt Robinson. He's not the biggest guy, but he's got that good flat back and leverage. When people take him on, or when he takes people on, he doesn't lose any ground. When he was a rookie, he was getting hit in the chin some. That doesn't happen anymore. He's got that good pad level under other players. And he's got a great motor.
"That's another good thing about Kyle. He likes to play, so he mixes it up pretty good every snap."
Wilber received scholarship offers to many other big-time programs, including Wisconsin, Nebraska and Kentucky, but his fondness for the players and coaches at Wake Forest inspired him to join the Florida brigade in black and gold.
After a successful career at Apopka High School near Orlando (alma mater of, among others, former Pro Bowler Warren Sapp and current Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather), Wilber has progressed as a player and a person while donning the Demon Deacon jersey.
His performance peaked during the recent trip to Tallahassee. While Wake Forest fell to Florida State, Wilber shined with a career-high 11 tackles, including three tackles for loss and two sacks, the eighth and ninth sacks of his collegiate career.
"I think there was a little bit of a challenge to him to step up at Florida State," Grobe explained. "We have high expectations for all our kids, but especially an older kid that has talent. He's a guy we have high expectations for, maybe sometimes unrealistic expectations. We expect him to go out there every Saturday and play great."
