Darius Wiley waited two years for Saturday. He got about a quarter and a half of it. Read more: 26 snaps: Darius Wiley’s Mountaineer debut season ends before it truly started.
The redshirt sophomore defensive lineman will miss the rest of the 2026 season with a severe ligament injury in his leg, Rich Rodriguez confirmed on his radio show Monday. Wiley was carted off the field in the fourth quarter of West Virginia’s 31-24 win over Coastal Carolina after his leg turned awkwardly on a pass rush.
“It was severe,” Rodriguez said. “He had a great camp, he’s a young guy who was gonna get going. He’s going to be out all year, guys like him who tear every ligament are usually out for a whole year, maybe more. The first surgery will hopefully be this Friday and hopefully that’s the only one he needs. The staff on the field did a great job. It’s serious — you got to get it back in place quickly. And Wiley handled it like a trooper.”
The long road from Hutchinson
Wiley arrived in Morgantown from Hutchinson Community College in Kansas, where he was one of the most productive defensive linemen in junior college football.
He piled up 20 tackles for loss for a Blue Dragons team that went 11-1 in 2025 and finished third in the country in quarterback hurries. Sports Illustrated’s West Virginia site put his full JUCO line at 57 tackles, 20 for loss and nine sacks. He won both JUCO All-American honors and Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
In roughly 26 snaps before the injury, he racked up three tackles and a tackle for loss. In addition, the transfer tallied two pressures, and two hurries. Wiley also had a hand in a fumble West Virginia recovered.
Related: Five takeaways from WVU’s week 1 win over Coastal Carolina
Who fills the hole up front
West Virginia’s defensive front just lost one of its more promising pieces in Week 1. The Dominion Post pointed toward JUCO transfer Jeremiah Johnson, who put up 34 tackles with 23 solo stops last season, and Oregon transfer Tobi Haastrup. The latter is a former high-profile recruit who appeared in three games for the Ducks. SI floated redshirt freshmen Wilnerson Telemaque and Brandon Caesar, along with expanded roles for Taylor Brown, KJ Henson or Bowling Green transfer David Afogho.
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