Gold Rush Feature: Big-Play Guy
9/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 17, 2010
This article was originally published in the Sept. 11 edition of Gold Rush.
By Sam Walker
Defensive end Kyle Wilber established himself as a considerable talent as a freshman. He was the youngest starter on the Wake Forest defense in 2008 and was the only redshirt freshman to earn a start on the Wake Forest defense that year. After playing in 13 games, starting seven, and rolling up 42 tackles and three sacks, Wilber was given honorable mention freshman all-America honors from College Football News. But more importantly, he played his way into the role of an impact player that would factor largely into Wake Forest's defensive plans for 2009.
Wilber picked up right where he left off in last year's opener against Baylor, tallying a blocked kick, a fumble recovery and a sack. He drew accolades for his play, but perhaps the greatest compliment he has so far received from Coach Jim Grobe wasn't about his play. The compliment was about him not playing, and it is probably a compliment he'd rather not have ever gotten. "I've made the statement before that there was nothing that hurt us more last year and kept us from going to a bowl game than losing Kyle Wilber," Grobe said. "When he broke his leg in the Stanford game, it just killed us because he was our big-play guy."
Wilber sustained a broken leg in the Sept. 12 game against Stanford and missed the next seven games healing and rehabilitating. "I was coming off a free rush and the tackle on the other side was trying to block Brandon Ghee, and basically they both ran right into my leg (coming from the opposite side)," Wilber said.
And he admittedly wasn't the same player when he returned from his injury for the final three games of the season. Wilber returned to action Nov. 7 against Georgia Tech and recorded a season-high eight tackles, but he wasn't fully recovered, and Wilber and his coaches knew it. "He really didn't do anything at the end of the year like he had been doing," Grobe said. "He had a really bad injury."
"After they put my leg in the cast I didn't care that it was broken," Wilber said. "I just wanted to work on getting it better, so I could help my team. But even when I came back, my leg was hurting, and I didn't feel like I was 100 percent. I felt like I was 50 or 60 percent. As I look back now, I really wasn't ready for it.
"I was kind of depressed (after the injury), but it's just something you have to go through. All the injured athletes here have an injured counselor and it's for every sport. You talk about how stressed out you can get because you can't play. Football for me is a stress reliever. I love to be out here, love to play, love to lift weights, love to go to meetings, and when you can't do it, it brings your world down. Seeing my team going 100 percent out there got me through it. When I wanted to do something, I would just rehab some more."
Back for his redshirt junior season, Wilber seems poised to be the impact player the Deacons will need this season. In the opener against Presbyterian, the 6-5 standout from Apopka, Fla., was dominating. He recorded three sacks, tied for the team lead in tackles with eight, five of which were tackles for loss for 17 yards. He forced a fumble, and he blocked an extra point that was returned for a safety by teammate Kenny Okoro - the first defensive PAT in Wake Forest history.
"As you can see, he has that big-play ability," Grobe said. "What we saw (against Presbyterian) is what we expected from him all last season, but we didn't have him. He's huge for our defense this year. I think he can get you off the field with a tackle for loss, a sack, batted pass, and he is always doing something good.
"He's very athletic, very fast, but for a guy who is somewhat undersized weight wise (235), he is very strong and has that great leverage to get off blocks. And once he draws a bead on you, he can run you down. But going forward, we've got to understand that some people are going to do some things to control him and block him so that's when the other 10 guys are going to have to step up. His potential is sky high, but we need 10 other guys to do something for him. As far as leadership, you can't get any better. He doesn't talk a lot, but he sure plays great."
"I think this defense may be less selfish," Wilber said of the 2010 Wake Forest defense. "We all care about each other and don't really care who makes the big plays. We're fast, we're strong, and we all just love to play. We just want to go three-and-out every series.
"It felt really good, and I'm just happy to be out there again. I'm going to try to provide the best leadership I know how, but there are other leaders on this team, like Hunter Haynes and Josh Adams and Russell Nenon. I'm just backing them up and helping make sure our team is going hard and not loafing. My high school coach always told me that you rush until your motor breaks, and then rush one more play. He always taught me to go hard and that's what I've built my game on."
