Laying it on the Line
April 12, 2006 03:46 PM | General
April 12, 2006
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| Kevin Burke | Johnny Dingle | Keilen Dykes | James Ingram |
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| Pat Liebig | Doug Slavonic | Craig Wilson | Warren Young |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel can still remember the helpless feeling he had getting his young and inexperienced defense ready to play Maryland in the 2003 Gator Bowl. He was going into the game with just four healthy defensive linemen.
“I don’t think any of them were over 270 pounds that day,” Casteel said.
The result was one of West Virginia’s worst bowl losses to a much physically superior Maryland team. Fast forward to 2006 and Casteel has a dramatically different feeling about the group of defensive linemen he’s got in the program right now.
“We’re now at the point where we’re going to throw a bunch of guys out there that are 290 to 300-pound kids along the front and all those kids can move – they’re not heavy kids – they’re long-bodied and there’s not a lot of fat on them.”
The man in charge of the defensive line’s development, Bill Kirelawich, has historically molded effective and productive groups.
“Kirlav does a good job of bringing those guys along,” Casteel said. “I think that will be another strength for us in terms of being able to come at people with waves.”
Junior Keilen Dykes has been an effective run stopper in the past, producing 29 tackles and eight tackles for losses in 2005. Dykes also got to the quarterback five times despite being constantly double-teamed.
“Keilen Dykes has been consistent and he’s bigger and stronger than what he was last year,” Casteel said.
Senior Craig Wilson led all defensive linemen with 31 tackles in 2005, to go along with four tackles for a loss and a sack. Junior Pat Liebig spelled Ernest Hunter at nose guard a great deal last season and had a productive year, according to Casteel.
“Pat was kind of unsung,” Casteel said. “He played behind Ernest Hunter but when we went back and looked at the cut-ups, Pat Liebig showed up a great deal.”
Beyond them, a veteran like Warren Young has the size and experience to be a solid contributor as well.
“(Warren) is a 300-pound kid,” Casteel says. “We’re going to be able to put the same kind of guy out there with player one through six.”
Freshman James Ingram and sophomore Kevin Burke are two young defensive line prospects Casteel singled out. Doug Slavonic is getting more work, too, but needs to continue to get bigger.
“James Ingram is a player we’re high on,” Casteel said. “He has a good motor and he can run a little bit. And Kevin is a big kid in the middle that is another 300 pounder.”
The real wild card up front is 6-foot-3-inch, 255-pound junior defensive end Johnny Dingle. The one-time Florida backup was a pass rushing specialist last year who finished the season with 13 tackles and three and a half sacks.
Casteel believes Dingle has the potential of becoming more than just a part-time player.
“We’re going to need some kids to step up like Johnny Dingle,” Casteel said. “We’re hoping he can be a full-time player for us and just not a third-down guy.”
The one aspect of West Virginia’s three-man front that has received the most scrutiny is its inability to rush the passer. Because the three linemen are outnumbered five to three at the point of attack, Casteel usually has to bring pressure from different places with linebackers, safeties and blitzing corners.
The coach is hopeful he has some players with the size and speed to get to the quarterback more frequently this year.
“We’ll know when we start up in September,” he said. “I think the potential is there with a kid like Johnny Dingle. (Linebacker) Barry Wright has the ability and (safety) Johnny Holmes is another guy that can do it. Hopefully they can step up and do the things that we need them to do and then we can create some situations for them to do that.”
Briefly:
“It was a good learning experience to see how they utilize the defense and what they do is a little different than what we do,” he said. “We picked up some good things and share some ideas with them. We try and do that each year during this time. We’ve gone down to Wake Forest and we have visited with Air Force.”
Casteel says he wasn’t able to view any practices in person because BYU was still a couple of days away from beginning their spring drills.
“We did spend two days in their film room and had some good talks with their coaches,” he said.
“For the most part we try and let the kids play,” he said. “We try and install things that are really in the base package that we want them to be comfortable with and play full speed so we can evaluate them.”
