*Sigh* WVU DC Jeff Casteel: "Jeff's defenses kept us in games"
The timing of this ESPN piece by Brian Bennett on WVU DC Jeff Casteel couldn't be better from my perspective as a Michigan fan.
I'm not saying Greg Robinson is a bad DC. In my view, the jury is still out on GERG at Michigan given the teenage wasteland and "wafa thin" UM depth chart.
However, there is no jury or trial for that matter when it comes to Jeff Casteel and coaching college football defense. The dude could coach a turd into a competent, fire-breathing defense.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:15 PM ^
I'm sure RR would've taken Casteel with him if he could. Does anyone know why he chose to stay at WVU? Is he holding out for Stewie's job?
October 20th, 2010 at 5:36 PM ^
He stayed b/c his family is there.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:13 PM ^
was that Casteel didn't come here with him.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:38 PM ^
...though I think that having an Appalachian accent (and thus being viewed as either a dumb hick or slimy used car salesman-type) comes in a close second.
October 20th, 2010 at 9:18 PM ^
...though I think that having an Appalachian accent (and thus being viewed as either a dumb hick orslimy used carsnake oil salesman-type) comes in a close second.
FIFY.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:45 PM ^
Ol' Uncle Bill I guess, who was the special teams coordinator for most of his time at WVU.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:18 PM ^
According to several inside sources it was apparently Casteel's decision to stay at WVU. This is not direct information but the sources are unanimous that RR wanted him to come to Ann Arbor. Who knows what might have been, but I think we have to give Gerg some slack for the obvious reasons of personnel paucity.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:25 PM ^
You can't trust those damn unanimous sources. It's just as bad as those people who post rumors unanimously on message boards.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:51 PM ^
100% of unanimous sources are unanimous 100% of the time.
October 20th, 2010 at 8:00 PM ^
You look like a fool when you make fun of a person's usage. Doubly so when he is correct and you have it wrong.
October 20th, 2010 at 8:53 PM ^
Uhh....it was a joke. That was the whole point of the joke. I feel confident saying this. Sarcasm meter needs to be adjusted, methinks.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:05 PM ^
You don't need inside sources for that; it was basically common knowledge that Rodriguez asked Casteel to join him and that Casteel turned him down.
October 20th, 2010 at 7:29 PM ^
I read somewhere that the thinking was Stewart would flameout quickly and he'd get a shot at HC. Instead Stewart won a bowl game, made HC, and WVU has been ranked ahead of us most of the time since.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:19 PM ^
I just had a conversation with a recent ex-Spartan football player who tried to tell me that Rodriguez has "always had bad defense, he did at WVU too, they just got by with their offense". Since my real knowledge on WVU's defense is almost nil, I only said that I didn't believe that to be the case, but couldn't speak intelligently about it. Frustrating.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:07 PM ^
no reason for you to speak intelligently to a former spartan footballer
October 20th, 2010 at 5:19 PM ^
first off.. GERG just GERG.. Somewhere between an okay coach to a lousy one.. he's won a lot back in the day.. but with GREAT OFFENSES and decent talent... once he actually had to coach.. Syracuse.. reality hit..
But I would tend to think Casteel wants a HC gig... prolly deserves one.. I like his attitude and hope he doesn't get lost in the shuffle and thrown away once he gets one... like so many before him.
October 20th, 2010 at 9:21 PM ^
So a defensive coordinator who has players with talent and a great offense on the other side of the ball can win Super Bowls? Imagine that!
October 20th, 2010 at 5:22 PM ^
Maybe you missed the line where it said
Ten of the starters are either juniors or seniors, and many of them are multi-year contributors.
Because we obviously have that going on for us.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:11 PM ^
True, but to be fair, some of the attrition that has brought us to this sorry state of affairs might be due to the instability on our defensive coaching staff.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:24 PM ^
Casteel has coordinated a very good defense in the Big East. You know who else would have a very good defsne in the Big East right now? Michigan. We held UConn to well below their average point output. And we made them look bad.
Let's all be clear that there is a big difference in shutting down teams in the Big East, and shutting down legitimate offenses UM faces in the Big Ten. There is no evidence Casteel would be faring very good here at all.
Look at WVU's bowl games against legit (and not Big East) offenses. Casteel did not exactly shut teams down.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:35 PM ^
He's doing what he does in the Big East with a couple of cast-off D-lineman and a bunch of overgrown safeties...He's a good coach. I watched the WVU game against South Florida, and the WVU defense was very disciplined in terms of staying with their assignments.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:43 PM ^
watched that game, and it was amazing to see LB's that knew what they were doing out there... the 3-3-5 at WVU is very agressive, because there DB's don't get caught in the wrong spots like ours do...
October 20th, 2010 at 5:38 PM ^
I wholeheartedly agree with this. If Michigan was in the Big East, I'd venture to guess that we'd win the conference and be in line for a BCS spot (or at least be in the mix with WV).
October 20th, 2010 at 6:58 PM ^
in an away game. They held LSU to 230 total yards and 20 pts. This not a powerhouse LSU team, but they have a lot of speed and talent.
Also, Oklahoma did score 28 points but 13 of them came in the 4th quarter.
OU had a lot of yardage, but that was a fantastic offense, probably Stoops' best.
There are also many games that the WVU defense did well against Miami FL, Va Tech during the stronger Big East days. But I get your point about "consider the competition" and "Big East sucks. Your argument is irrelevant".
October 20th, 2010 at 5:25 PM ^
This is more proof that, when ran correctly, the 3-3-5 defense can be a dominant one.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:38 PM ^
Does anyone know why Jeff never came with Richrod to Michigan? Jeff was able to put together top 10 defenses at WVU under RichRod and would have helped eminsly. Theres no doubt in my mind that Michigans defense would be far more improved if Jeff could have implemented his defense from day one under RichRod at Michigan.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:01 PM ^
This is probably one of the most underrated bad breaks that Rodriguez has caught since he came here. Casteel's decision to stay at WVU had more to do with not wanting to uproot his family than any conflict or animosity with Rich Rod (after all, he had been with Rich Rod since the beginning of his tenure at WVU). He was also good friends with Bill Stewart, and apparently made the decision to stay after Stewart was named the permanent head coach.
Casteel is legitimately one of the country's best defensive coordinators. RR gave him free reign at WVU and he consistently fielded top-10 defenses. If I have a knock against Rodriguez, it's that his philosophy on defense seems to be focused on trying to recreate Casteel's defense with only bits and pieces of Casteel's expertise (maybe not consciously, but in effect). That's why Rich Rod clashed with Shafer; Shafer wasn't a bad coach, but he was a bad hire because he didn't share Rodriguez' (i.e., Casteel's) defensive philosophy. Case in point: the disastrous decision to go to the 3-3-5 for the Purdue game in '08 was forced on Shafer by Rodriguez and his assistants, despite Shafer and our players' complete lack of prior experience with it. Similarly, the defense's move to the 3-3-5 for this season (though they seem to be trending towards abandoning it as the season progresses) has Rodriguez' fingerprints all over it. GERG is more of a yes-man who will do whatever Rich Rod says since he's just happy to have a job after the Syracuse debacle. It's also worth noting that Rodriguez hired the train wreck Jay Hopson as linebackers coach after Casteel decided to stay put and before he hired Shafer; perhaps he would have picked someone different if he had input from his defensive coordinator.
Having said that, not all of the personnel issues are related to the DC instability; Woolfolk and Williams' injuries were just bad luck, Turner had clear work ethic issues, and some of the other attrition occurred even before Rodriguez had coached a single game. Maybe Rich Rod and GERG can build a good defense once they have the personnel; the jury is still out. But it's clear that some bad hiring decisions were made along the way.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:21 PM ^
Some great points and observations.
Perhaps Rodriguez can match the experienced talent with a coach from the Casteel tree down the line? or maybe we have one of the best fits right now and they'll grow together?
A recurring theme from many posts is that the coaching will be way easier to assess when we have experienced talent two deep. Those posts are hard to argue with.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:27 PM ^
I think that's the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn right now. Though Rodriguez isn't the guru on defense that he is on offense, he can't be entirely clueless about defense since he was a DB in his playing days. It might just be taking him a little while to get all the right pieces in place.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:29 PM ^
I'm not saying Greg Robinson is a bad DC
I am.
October 20th, 2010 at 7:36 PM ^
Seconded by a Chiefs fan who remembers him from the AFC West.
October 20th, 2010 at 8:48 PM ^
Before or after he won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos?
October 21st, 2010 at 10:46 AM ^
Those Superbowls had NOTHING to do with his defense and everything to do with Elway and Davis. They gave up 21 & 19 points in each.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:40 PM ^
It is a different game. Exhibit A is Monte Kiffin, renowned as one of the greatest D coaches of all time. Exhibit B is of course Weis. I will take a proven college DC every day over a pro coach.
October 20th, 2010 at 8:33 PM ^
But Weis had a decided schematic advantage!
October 20th, 2010 at 7:13 PM ^
The initial linebackers and defensive coordinator hires were somewhat disastrous for on the field and recruiting and such. If Casteel comes everyone is on the same page from day 1 and things are at least marginally better on defense every year since RR shows up.
Casteel is from there isn't he? He probably wanted someone to stay behind to afford some kind of continuity for the program instead of losing literally the entire coaching staff except their cranially challenged special teams coach/new head coach.
But then if wannstache just hadn't beaten WVU in the last game of that season... oh how the dominos fall.
October 20th, 2010 at 8:00 PM ^
Then Les doesn't make it to the NC game, he's not under the same pressure to stay down in Baton Rouge when Sailboat Bill finally gets off his ass and contacts him, and The Hat is our coach starting in 2008. The mind reels at the alternate universe complications...
October 20th, 2010 at 8:16 PM ^
ANN ARBOR, MI - In his Monday afternoon press conference, Michigan coach Les Miles responded to criticism of his repeated clock management gaffes by pointing out that he's saving all of his timeouts for the Ohio State game. He then yelled "Wahooo!" loudly at the top of his lungs and exclaimed, "F--- Nebraska!" repeatedly.
Athletic department spokesman Dave Ablauf attributed Miles' remarks to exhaustion and an overly tight baseball cap.
October 20th, 2010 at 8:25 PM ^
Which would send Michael Rosenberg into rhapsodic declarations of bulging-pants man-love for true Michigan Man Les Miles.
October 21st, 2010 at 1:25 AM ^
It wouldn't have mattered. Miles was not going to be hired; there were too many people in the athletic department (including Carr) who despised him. We would have ended up with someone like Jim Grobe.
October 20th, 2010 at 8:04 PM ^
It's amazing how a thumb injury to a random QB at a random Big East school had such a profound impact on the future of Michigan football. Talk about butterfly effect.
October 20th, 2010 at 8:00 PM ^
The dude could coach a turd into a competent, fire-breathing defense.
Man, even Nick Saban couldn't turn this defense into an elite unit. Casteel is good, but his system has been in place, they recruit it with a focus, and the staff is 100% behind a coordinator who knows his defense.
October 21st, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^
Fun fact: If Doug Marrone lost his next 19 games at Syracuse, he'd still have a better winning percentage than Greg Robinson.