Columbia's Wiley competing for spot with Bills

The converted Columbia running back believes that, with some improvement, he will be a contributor on Buffalo's defensive line. It wasn't so long ago that Columbia football was the laughingstock of the Ivy League. This year they broke out of the their losing ways to compete for the Ivy League crown, finishing second to Dartmouth with an 8-2 overall record. A big reason for their turnaround was all-Ivy standout defensive end Marcellus Wiley -- who now is focusing on making the Buffalo Bills back into a Super Bowl contender. Wiley was highly touted out of Columbia, despite playing against Ivy League competition. Slated by some to be a first-rounder, Wiley fell to the second round and the 52nd overall pick. Nonetheless, he seemed happy, and furthermore, the Bills seemed ecstatic to get Wiley late in the second round. "I went into there just hoping to get drafted. I went there with some mental images of myself going high. I knew I matched up well with other players out there that were eligible for the draft," he said. Now, two weeks into training camp at SUNY Fredonia, Wiley explained that it doesn't matter to anyone on the Bills team where he is from just as long as he can play. Wiley has been able to evaluate himself in these first few weeks and sees himself doing some things to receive the coaching staff's accolades and other things that he hopes to improve. Wiley has excellent speed for a defensive end which will probably be used most often by the Bills in their nickel and dime packages. He also expects to play a lot of special teams, but his personal goals are loftier. "First of all, my most immediate goal is to make the team. Past that, I want to be a positive contributor, a performer," Wiley said. One aspect of his game that he was willing to admit can get better is his handwork. On the advice of National Football League veterans Brice Paup and Jim Jeffcoat, Wiley has been taking karate and yoga to help his lineman skills. Yoga and karate are just two lifestyle changes that Wiley has realized come with being a professional athlete. The differences between the college and professional games begin there. Football changes from being a sort of hobby to a job. It's more demanding and more intense. "There are less distractions, but there are more obstacles," Wiley said. There aren't any classes, but team meetings are held regularly and attendance is mandatory. He is expected to learn everything in the playbook, and learn it quickly. Sundays are the testing days. "I have high goals for myself. I'm a gifted athlete, and all you have to do is play your position. It's where you fit in the system. You try to show the things you learn in practice in the games," he said. This past Sunday, Wiley faced his first professional competition -- that wasn't vying for a job with the Bills. In their preseason game against the Denver Broncos, Wiley was able to apply pressure several times and eluded his blocker enough to draw a few holding calls on his opponent. Overall, he has found that life in the NFL can be a learning process. "Run reads are the most difficult for me. Offenses are very, very hard to read in comparison to college...There are a lot more things being thrown at you at once," he said. Wiley is willing to work hard though to prove that he belongs in the NFL. The notion that he could play at this level has always been there, even as a 195-pound freshman running back at Columbia. "I thought I had a legitimate shot as a freshman when I was playing running back," he said laughing. "When I got to the all-star games and I got to match myself up against the guys that got all the publicity, then I knew I had what it took to be in the NFL." He has matured much since that freshman year. He added nearly 80 pounds to his six foot four inch frame to reach his current 271-pound listing. Yet, he is still capable of running a 4.7 40-yard dash. In adding the weight, Wiley basically "outgrew the [running back] position," as he explained. Columbia continued to use Wiley in short-yardage situations, but he readily admits those may have been the last carries of his career. "I'm trying to master what I'm playing right now. At Columbia, that was pretty much a gimmick...If I get to that status level where they want to play around with me a little more, I'll look forward to that, but for now I want to stay as Marcellus Wiley -- the great defensive end," Wiley said. With the Bills' Bruce Smith still unsigned, Wiley stands to play a lot. Wiley seems confident that he can do the job at the defensive end position, yet smart enough to acknowledge the pitfalls that await a brash rookie. "There's been a lot of good talk about me, but I don't get too caught up in the hype of things. I just try to say 'have I reached my full potential?'...You get a sense of satisfaction that you made the cut, but you have to drive yourself because every year there's 200 new guys trying to make it," Wiley said. Wiley also aims to be active off the field. He graduated from Columbia with a degree in sociology, and he hopes to use that to work with younger children. He is a firm believer that professionals, like himself, can make a difference in a young person's life. "I love working with kids. In school, I used to be so happy when a speaker came from any field -- whether they were a fireman or an athlete -- and I used to really sit there and be attentive to what they were saying. The fact that they were there was the biggest thing for me. It shows that you can change their lives," Wiley said. Outside of football, he hopes that he will be a positive influence on children during a long career in the NFL. Right now, he knows his biggest obstacle is learning the ins and outs of the professional games, but he is looking forward to becoming a mainstay in the bitterly cold conditions of Buffalo's Rich Stadium. "I want to be able to walk away from this game a dozen or so years from now and say 'man, I really did well and left my mark and gave back to a game that I love'," Wiley said.