It's taken a long time for Jeff Casteel to make his way from Morgantown, West Virginia all the way to Tucson, Arizona. What's one more day?
Rodriguez will announce West Virginia’s Jeff Casteel as his defensive coordinator on Wednesday afternoon, when the other three staff vacancies could also be filled, a source told TucsonCitizen.com on Tuesday afternoon.
Casteel to Arizona has been rumored all the way since the beginning of this process that made Rich Rodriguez the head coach of the Wildcats. The two worked together on offense and defense in West Virginia, but Casteel decided to stay with the Mountaineers when Rodriguez went over to Michigan. Rodriguez was able to charge up the Wolverines offense by his third season, but the defense remained a calamity throughout his tenure and Michigan got worse and worse on that side of the ball. Unbelievably, with nearly the same personnel, Brady Hoke's defensive coordinator Greg Mattison made Michigan's defense good in under a year.
Casteel with the Wildcats should improve a team that wasn't very good on the defensive side of the ball, since his 3-3-5 scheme generally favors a strong secondary, where the Wildcats are probably at their deepest next season. How big the improvements will be remain to be seen.
To discuss Casteel as defensive coordinator of the Wildcats, go to Arizona Desert Swarm.