Ole Miss Football Defender Charles Wiley Enters Transfer Portal
Ole Miss senior defensive lineman Charles Wiley has entered the transfer portal, a member of the Rebel athletic department has confirmed to The Grove Report.
He will have one year of eligibility remaining.
Wiley, a redshirt junior in 2019, played in all 12 games. He finished the season with 27 tackles, including three sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss. Of returning players, only Sam Williams and Jacquez Jones had more tackles for loss than Wiley.
Standing at 6-foot-2 and 244-pounds, Wiley was a four-star recruit out of Georgia in the Ole Miss class of 2016 that ranked No. 5 nationally. In his three seasons on the field for the Rebels, Wiley has played as both a 4-3 defensive end and a 3-4 outside linebacker.
Interestingly enough, he was essentially equally productive at both. His 2018 stats (6 TFLs and 2.5 sacks) playing as a 4-3 defensive end almost exactly mirror his prior mentioned 2019 stats, in which he played the 3-4 outside linebacker role.
Wiley will certainly be missed, but it wasn't exactly a lock that he would have started this upcoming year as a redshirt senior for Ole Miss. That said, the Rebels font seven isn't a deep group by any means. Benito Jones, Josiah Coatney, Qaadir Sheppard and Austrian Robinson are all on NFL rosters from one year ago.
The Rebel outside linebacking group now consists of Sam Williams, who appears now a lock to start, and Luke Knox. It wouldn't be outlandish for them to move one of the four extremely productive middle linebackers (Lakia Henry, MoMo Sanogo, Jacquez Jones or Donta Evans) to outside linebacker to attempt to get one more on the field.
Jones, with 7.7 tackles for loss and two sacks last year, would be the most likely option if they are to go that direction. There's also a few incoming freshman on the defensive end and outside linebacker group that could contribute in Demon Clowney and a few others that will play quite a bit like Ryder Anderson.
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