WVU Defensive Lineman Darius Wiley Underwent Successful Surgery

Some good news on the injury front.

WVU Athletics Communications

The road to recovery has officially begun for West Virginia defensive lineman Darius Wiley, who suffered a lower-body injury in the team’s season-opening win over Coastal Carolina.

On Wednesday morning, the team announced that Wiley underwent successful surgery.

Darius Wiley underwent successful surgery.

The road to recovery starts now🦾 pic.twitter.com/a7Iiafg22d

— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) September 16, 2026

It may have been only one game, and just 26 snaps to be exact, but he made an impact in his Mountaineer debut. Wiley ended the day with three tackles, a pair of pressures and hurries, one tackle for loss, and forced a fumble, which was recovered by WVU defensive end Zeke Durham-Campbell.

"It was a severe ligament. He had a great camp. Not a good camp, but a great camp," WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said on Monday following the win over Coastal. "He's a young guy with three years and was really going to get going with it. He'll obviously be out all year, but guys that have those kinds of injuries, that tear every ligament, it takes at least a year, maybe more. We've got some really good doctors lined up, got a great medical staff. He'll rehab like crazy. He's a tough kid, so hopefully he'll be back and ready to go next year."

If Wiley continued to play the way he did in the opener, there’s a good chance he could have found himself on one of the All-Big 12 lists at season’s end. Now, West Virginia is hoping they can get some quality production from Canadian import Emerson Joy, as well as Wilnerson Telemaque and Brandon Caesar.

Of those three, Joy is the only one who saw defensive snaps last week against UT Martin. Edge rushers Jeremiah Johnson and Tobi Haastrup can kick down inside as well. Joy saw 29 snaps on defense last week and recorded one tackle and one defensive stop. According to PFF, Joy had a subpar game, grading out at 57.4, much of which was brought down by his lack of pass rush.

The Mountaineers and the Cavaliers will square off on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET in Charlotte. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network and the Watch ESPN app.