A Need for Speed
April 10, 2006 11:04 AM | General
April 10, 2006
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| Ovid Goulbourne | Bobby Hathaway | Jay Henry | Mortty Ivy |
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| Marc Magro | Kevin McLee | Reed Williams | Barry Wright |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Speed is one of the most important attributes in Jeff Casteel’s odd-stack defense and the veteran defensive coordinator believes he might have a little more of it to utilize this fall, including at linebacker.
“We have a chance to be a little quicker and a little faster than what we were last year,” Casteel said last week.
West Virginia’s defense has always highlighted speed at the corners and at the three safety positions, but the coach believes there has also been an upgrade in speed at the three linebacker positions with the likes of Ovid Goulbourne and Barry Wright. Casteel, who coaches the unit in addition to overseeing the entire defense, really likes what he’s seen from his group of backups, especially sophomore Reed Williams.
“Reed was a pleasant surprise (last year),” Casteel said. “We thought he was a good football player coming out of high school but the background of playing at a small school made us anxious to see how was going to do.”
According to Casteel, the sophomore from Moorefield has the right blend of brains and brawn.
“He’s very instinctive and he packs a punch when he comes up and makes contact with people,” Casteel said. “He’s still probably about 230 or so and he needs to continue working on his quickness but he’s a very, very good football player and he’s got a bright future ahead of him.
“He has competed very well and he is right in the mix at the sam linebacker spot with Bobby Hathaway,” Casteel said.
Senior Barry Wright is another sam linebacker that the coach has been impressed with. Wright came to WVU as a walk-on last fall after spending a year as a backup linebacker at Florida State.
“Barry Wright is someone that if you came down to watch practice you’re going to notice him,” Casteel said. “He’s got great, great speed. In fact, I’m not quite sure how to coach him sometimes because he is so fast. He’s a very powerful guy and he’s just trying to understand our terminology a little bit. He has the ability to be a playmaker and we’re real, real happy with him.”
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| Jeff Casteel |
The top three linebackers right now are Jay Henry, Kevin McLee and Bobby Hathaway. All three have extensive experience along with backup inside linebacker Marc Magro. Casteel admits those guys are to the point in their careers where they can now concentrate on the finer points of the defense.
“For the most part, for them it is understanding mistakes they made as far as missing a tackle … we made a missed tackle tape and looked at things like a big-run tape and why those runs happened. Those guys are always working on themselves physically and they’ve really picked up where they left off from the bowl game,” he said.
Casteel says Henry and Magro are playing as well right now as at any time during their careers. The same goes for McLee.
“Boo is always going to be an explosive player who makes some big plays for us,” Casteel said.
Sophomore Mortty Ivy got on the field last year as a freshman and was having a solid spring until going down with a knee injury during the team’s first scrimmage. It is hoped that he will be ready to go by this fall.
Because of improved depth, that has allowed Casteel to bring younger players like Ovid Goulbourne along slowly.
“He was a tailback in high school and he’s learning the position and doing some good things,” Casteel said. “The kids all want to be starters and the coaches all want depth and run out people in waves and right now if we can continue to bring some of these guys along we’re hoping we’ll be able to play with six-seven different kids there.”
In fact, the linebacking corps is in such good shape that Casteel was able to move promising 6-foot-2-inch, 225-pound sophomore Johnny Holmes to spur safety to take advantage of his size and terrific speed. Holmes is really a hybrid player that has showed an ability to both play in space and rush the passer from the edge.
“We’re real happy with where Johnny is at right now and we’ve just got to create a way for him to play,” Casteel said. “He would have been a great linebacker but because we have such a backlog of kids there we thought maybe we could move him to the back and maybe that would fit his strengths.
“He’s done well.”
The spring, says Casteel, is as much about gauging his unit’s strengths and weaknesses as it is implementing new schemes.
“What we need to do as coaches is try and find out what the kids do best in the spring and then get together in the summer and try and come up with some different ways to try and highlight what they do best,” he said.
