Building Blocks
September 04, 2006 10:58 AM | General
September 4, 2006
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| Jeff Casteel |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel is pretty happy with his unit’s performance last Saturday against Marshall. The Herd crossed the goal line just once in the 42-10 season-opening Mountaineer victory.
“Number one you go out there with six new starters and you play against an outstanding running back (Ahmad Bradshaw) -- really two with Chubb Small -- and a good quarterback (Bernie Morris) with a very good scheme offensively,” Casteel said. “They do a nice job and for our kids to go out there and battle and hang in there and hold that team to 10 points there are a lot of things we can look at as positives.”
Of course there were mistakes -- jumping offsides on blitzes and mental miscues on third down which young players often make -- but Casteel says all of the problems are correctable.
“We’re playing with a lot of young players so you’re going to expect a lot of mistakes and you’re not going to win a lot of games doing that,” he said. “But all in all, it was a great learning experience. They hung in there and made some plays when they had to. There is a lot of learning that went on here (Saturday) and we’ll get better.”
The part that was particularly pleasing to Casteel was that there were no visible loafs.
“The kids played hard, they played with great effort and they’re going to see the things we have to work on in order to get better,” he said.
Because Marshall strives for offensive balance and has two effective weapons in the backfield in Bradshaw and Morris, Casteel said the Herd’s package is hard for a young defense to prepare for in a season-opening game.
“They did a nice job running the boot and naked plays and those are things we work on daily,” he said. “We didn’t execute at times for various reasons. When you play a good football team you’re not going to hold them to zero yards. We’ll get better; we’ve just got to continue to work.”
West Virginia’s secondary, with four new starters, held up well, too, according to Casteel.
“I thought they did a nice job,” he said. “Larry Williams did a nice job in the first half and made some plays. Antonio Lewis made some plays and I thought Quinton Andrews for his first game made a nice pick and had an opportunity to knock the ball out on the touchdown. He’s just got to go through the hands instead of the body, but those are the things that hopefully in the next situation he will execute.”
Casteel said inexperience forced him to stick pretty much with their base defensive packages, especially when the Mountaineers got up by three scores quickly.
“For the most part we stuck with what our kids could do well,” he said. “We’re a work in progress with all of them. For our first ballgame we did what we had to do.”
Casteel said the tackling was also pretty solid, particularly in the first half.
“We were very lethargic in the second half and we didn’t have much zip,” Casteel said. “Those are things we’re going to have to work through with these young players and we’ve got some good young players. They’ve just got to work hard and correct some things they didn’t do so well today.”
Third and long was the defense’s best friend on Saturday, particularly in the first half. Marshall finished the game five of 11 on its third-down tries. However, the Herd did average 5.8 yards per play and the West Virginia defense was only able to come up with two negative yardage plays – tackles for losses by linebackers Kevin McLee and Marc Magro – and no sacks.
Still, there was plenty for Casteel and his defensive coaches to build upon.
“I was proud of them,” he said. “If you tell me we’re going to come in and hold a team that has a very good quarterback and two great running backs to 10 points there are some good things we can take out of that.”
