This week Couch Fire Sports is starting the first in a three part interview with former WVU standout linebacker Grant Wiley. We sat down with some questions with Grant and dude went Chuck Norris on us and just nailed everything we threw at him and destroyed it. We got so much great stuff there was no way the CFS readers could even try to comprehend it all in one sitting, so we broke it down for you, and without farther ado, Part Uno.

Couch Fire Sports: How you choose WVU to take your talents to, what was the sell?
Grant Wiley: My first impression of WVU was from Sports Illustrated. An article featuring Damon Cogdell. He was in an old school car with the names of WVU opponents spray painted on the car. I thought that was sick. He looked like a bad-ass sittin in the drivers seat. He was also the first player I met. I didn’t follow WVU at the time but I was aware that it was a great place to play. But it was definitely the feeling that I got when I first met Coach Kirlav(Defensive line coach). Kirlav is this no-nonsense, straight shootin, look you in the eye, squeeze your hand off, laugh, and then scream how good it is to meet you. His voice is like nothing I had ever heard. My junior year of high school is when I was getting recruited heavily. The wide receivers coach from Florida was my first phone call, so initially, I thought I was going to Florida. Then all of these other schools were following suit. Michigan State, Maryland, Georgia Tech, East Carolina, Wake Forest, UNC, Shitt(Pitt), Virginia Tech, and WVU. All of these coaches were telling me how great I was and that I was going to be the next Keith Brooking, or Brandon Spoon, blah blah blah. To me the ones trying to sell me what they thought was a cool dream was bullshit to me. The one coach to look me up and down and tell me that I wasn’t big enough, strong enough, or heavy enough to play right now was Kirlav. These are things that I knew and I appreciated his honesty. He said, “You’re going to redshirt. You’ll get bigger, faster, stronger, and start as a redshirt freshman.” That was my goal to begin with. I needed to grow physically like he said. So after hearing that, WVU became my number one. Coach Nehlen and Kirlav offered me the day after Kirlav saw me. Virginia Tech followed suit. Lou West and Coach Beamer found out I got the offer and offered me shortly there after. So the summer before my senior year I visited many schools. Virginia Tech was cool but I didn’t totally feel it there. After taking my money from Penn State camp and immediately being taken off of their recruiting radar, I enrolled to Coach Nehlen’s camp and showed off my skills. From the second I crossed the state line, it felt right. The coaching staff and everyone their never made me feel like a product or asset. They allowed me to do me without any pressure. Meeting Coach Dunlap helped too. He is a classic character as well. It goes without saying that Coach Nehlen is one of the greatest college football coaches ever. So everything about WVU felt right.

CFS: You were offensive player of the year in PA, and then became a linebacker, what happened?
GW: I was Defensive Player of the Year my junior year of high school. I played with a dislocated shoulder my senior year so I played defense only one game, at safety, with a broken hand. I told myself, if I am only playing offense, than I am going to destroy it. 9.6 yards a carry in 8 games, 1,622 yards, 22 touchdowns. Plus I thought it would be dope to be the only player in the history of my area to win back to back on different sides of the ball. Defense one year, offense the next. Some colleges liked me as a fullback, no thanks.

CFS: How hard did you have to work in school? Did they just give you grades?
GW: If someone gave me grades, why didn’t they just give me A’s? What was the point in giving me D’s? I wish someone gave me grades. Gifts and grades would have been awesome. Haha! I was smart enough to do what I had to do. I wasn’t interested in a lot of classes. The ones I was interested in, I got A’s or B’s. But the other three classes, different story. I would cheat sometimes. Very well too. But not everytime, sometimes. I don’t even think I would have gone to college if it wasn’t for football. No grades were given to me that I know of.

CFS: Hardest thing about being a elite level football player, that the average fan doesnt understand.
GW: The hardest part of being an elite player is probably the sacrifices you have to make. That goes with anything worth working towards. In college, it is a job-with school. Some days, you just want to chill and be with a girl, party a little bit, but you can’t, you have to be at meetings. Or you have to workout or you have to do conditioning. I used to ask myself all of the time if I was missing out on life by choosing to be a football player. I would see all of these students freely roaming the streets and I would be getting ready for bed because I was exhausted from practice. On the flip side, how many people can say that 70,000 people were smiling and screaming because they intercepted a pass that changed the momentum of a game to lead the Mountaineers to victory? Not many. And there are millions of young men out there that wish they could say that they did. So it works itself out. I always had that internal battle for my freedom going on. Still do. Haha! Oh yeah, and having to listen to uneducated people talking football as if they know, was always a challenge. You have no clue, know that.

CFS: harder practices NFL or College?
GW: NFL is harder mentally I thought. College, we were way more physical all season. So, by the last game of the season if you made it, you were numb. NFL is very cautious because of injury. College, they don’t care unless you score touchdowns.

CFS: You were in training camp with the Vikings the same time as Brock Lesnar, whats he like? Could you last 1 round with him in the octagon?
GW: I was in training camp with Brock Lesnar. He was such a mystery to everyone. No one knew what to expect because if anyone saw him it was while he was suplexing people or showing off his crazy persona as a professional wrestler. I remember the first day of camp vividly though. I was walking in the lobby where wives and children were dropping off their fathers for work and there was this tall blond with boobs that didn’t naturally come with puberty. But she was stunning! Every person with a penis walked by in awe of this woman. My initial thought was, “Check her finger.” She definitely had a ring on it. Then I saw her grab Brocks hand. Then she took her sunglasses off and sure enough it was Sable from the WWE. WoooooooooooW! So my first impression of Brock was great because it was of his beautiful wife. As time went on I noticed guys on the team, not really taking to him and actually being kind of scared to talk to him. The NFL is very “clique-eee.” A lot of it has to do with how much is in your contract or where you were drafted. I thought that was whack. But it is America and that is how people are raised so I can’t say I was totally surprised. I am cool, so I was the exception. Haha! Any way, one day we were on a bus to go to some rookie function and I sat next to Brock and we just started talking about life. He is a really sweet guy with this incredible hulk exterior. He was no different from me in that he just was working hard to make the team. I thought he was a good guy. He has to be a good guy to keep Sable around. She does not need him. The best was when we scrimmaged the Chiefs, I was in a sling, and someone hit Pepp (Daunte Culpepper). You don’t hit the quarterback during a scrimmage unless you want to start a fight. Our sideline cleared and a fight went down for a couple of minutes. But all of a sudden you see Brock with a shit-eating grin on his face screaming while sprinting back to our sideline with a chiefs helmet in hand. I heard that a chief got suplexed, but I didn’t see it.

CFS: Easier to get laid as a college football player or as an actor in NYC?
GW: I was never really into all of the groupies. Some, not all. Haha! As much of a meathead as I was, I was definitely not into pulling the old football player card. A lot of girls just like that manliness that comes with pads. They get turned on by the lights, tight pants, and barbaric growls that go on Saturday afternoon. But then when you are into the arts, that is also very interesting. Women know that you feel and love and have emotion and are, maybe a little romantic. At the end of the day I don’t think if I was a janitor it would make that much of a difference. Not because I think I am Don Juan or The Great Wilt Chamberlain but I think it is about going after what you want with some confidence. Like Marky Mark used to do it. Women really love that shit! Both.

CFS: What does it mean to be a Mountaineer to you?
GW: To be a mountaineer…What a loaded question. I don’t think I fully understood what it was to be a Mountaineer until after I put my time in and then spent time away. For me, I was so caught up in some of the hype(as much as I wasn’t) to really ponder the history and the meaning behind being a mountaineer when I was playing. Yeah, I saw the fans on Saturdays, and in Bent Willey’s(and in countless other night time establishments, shout out to the old “Stone Pony” HAHA) and I enjoyed the fact that they appreciated the work that I put out on the field week in and week out. But being a fan has always been a mystery to me in general. One day I fully realized that West Virginia fans aren’t just fans. These are people with a belief that has been ingrained in them from the time they are born that West Virginia Football and Basketball and anything WVU is a way of life. At one point in my career I really thought that this was weird. As I grew wiser I started to explore why and tried to understand this belief. We are looking at a state that has basically been fucked by globalization and outsourcing. During WWII West Virginia was a thriving state with factories manufacturing chemicals for war, coal was still plentiful and at the time affordable to produce in the U.S. The war ends, the politicians got rich and so they decided that they got what they wanted and now it is time to move on. No war, no need for chemicals, factories close. Coal is now cheaper to produce in other countries, so the politicians lobby for China. So now there is major unemployment. There is no work, people are depressed, people are struggling to eat, but they are still finding a way to maintain community. The one thing everyone has in common that keeps the smiles and gives reason for hope. It has always been the West Virginia Mountaineers and always will be the West Virginia Mountaineers. I have many friends that played at major Universities all over the country and have stories to tell but I have yet to see one of their faces light up like mine or my teammates when they talk about their experience in college. If I had to pick one word to describe being a Mountaineer, it would have to be “Special.” West Virginia is the land of the unknown. Unknown to everyone but Mountaineers. What we know as Mountaineers will carry on with us and whomever sees old gold and blue as blood as opposed to colors of the spectrum forever. When our backs are against the wall, we always stand-up and are ready for whatever and I think that is special.

… Make sure you check back next Thursday for Part Dos of the interview, when we stop being so vanilla and start to get a little bananas up in this joint, touching on boosters, drugs, woman, Rich Rod and the life.

Hide ya Kids, Hide ya Wife !!