Coming out of retirement, bandits coach Jeff Casteel decided to rejoin Rich Rodriguez and his son, Jake Casteel, in West Virginia.
Casteel has a history with Rodriguez going back to the 90’s. Rodriguez was the head coach at Glenville State University while Casteel was assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Shepherd University.
The two faced off regularly and Casteel was asked about what he noticed about Rodriguez early on.
“The thing that I think that coach does really well, when you play his teams, his teams are competitive,” Casteel said. “You know you’re going to have to work for four quarters if you’re going to try to beat them.”
Joining his son Jake was a big reason why Casteel came back to Morgantown to coach again.
“This probably sounds bad, but I’ve probably spent more time with Jake in the last three months than I had, really, in forever,” Casteel went on to say, “I’m really appreciative of Rich and Jake does a good job. It’s really good to work with him.”
When asked about his son’s coaching ability, Casteel was very complimentative, even saying Jake is ahead of where he was at his age.
“He’s ahead of where I was probably at that age,” Casteel said. “He’s had a pretty good background and he’s been doing it for probably about six, seven years now.”
With the bandit position being a more modern position, Casteel discussed what he looks for in his bandits.
“Number one I think speed. We had a guy named Bruce Irvin back in the day,” Casteel said, “A kid that’s explosive, can get off the football and press the pocket, do the things you need to do.”
As of right now, the bandit position room is one of the youngest on roster. Braden Siders is the only upperclassman, being a senior transfer, and Casteel discussed how it’s been coaching a younger group.
“That room is really young, as a matter of fact the only one who isn’t young is Braden who was a transfer from Wyoming. Great kid and a great work ethic, he’s a solid guy but other than him, everybody else is really a first or second year player so they’re learning,” Casteel said.
Casteel coming out of retirement and joining the coaching staff brings even more experience to the defensive side of the ball for the Mountaineers.
The Mountaineers look to improve their defensive play as they ranked No. 102 nationally after allowing 410.3 yards a game last season.
