When Nevada arrives at Arizona Stadium on Saturday, two of its assistants will experience something familiar yet strange.
Jeff Casteel and David Lockwood coached at Arizona for four seasons. They were part of one of the most successful runs in UA history.
Their time here ended up abruptly; both were let go by then-Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez within a two-week span at the end of the 2015 season.
They’re back three years later with the Wolf Pack, which faces Arkansas State in the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl. Nevada is the designated home team, so Casteel and Lockwood will get dressed for game day in the same locker room they used to occupy.
“We were kidding on the plane,” Lockwood said. “Never in a million years did we think we’d be back in the Arizona Bowl.”
That’s the thing about the coaching profession, though: You never know what’s going to happen. One year you’re coaching the best defensive player in college football, as Casteel did with Scooby Wright in 2014. The next year, you’re out of a job.
“That’s the business. You just move on,” Casteel said. “People make changes. That’s part of the deal.”
In separate interviews after practice Thursday afternoon at the Kino North Stadium, neither coach expressed any bitterness or regret about his time at Arizona. If you’re looking for sour grapes, you’ve come to the wrong place.
“You don’t think about that,” Lockwood said. “The biggest thing is trying to think about the where the next story or the next deal is going to start for you.”
Both coaches sat out the 2016 season. Casteel resurfaced in December of that year, becoming the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Nevada under new coach Jay Norvell. Lockwood coached cornerbacks at UNLV — or, as he called it, “the other school” — in 2017 before reuniting with Casteel this year. Lockwood coaches the Wolf Pack’s cornerbacks and free safeties.
The pair has helped Nevada’s defensive improve dramatically. The Wolf Pack ranked 51st nationally in total defense through Wednesday after finishing 119th last season. Nevada has jumped from 106th to 77th in points allowed.
“We’ve got a good group of kids,” Casteel said. “They’ve played hard all year. Hopefully they’re going to do that again.”
Nevada Wolf Pack secondary coach David Lockwood, formerly with the Arizona Wildcats, prepares for the University of Nevada Wolf Pack football practice at Kino North Stadium, Dec. 27, 2018, in Tucson, Ariz. Nevada faces the Arkansas State Red Wolves in the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl on Dec. 29.
Highs and lows
Casteel and Lockwood aren’t strangers to success. Arizona won 33 games during their time in Tucson — the most over any four-year stretch in school history.
After a pair of 8-5 seasons, the Wildcats won the Pac-12 South in 2014. They finished the regular season 10-2. Wright, under Casteel’s tutelage, won the Bednarik, Lombardi and Nagurski awards, among other accolades.
“We did some good things,” Casteel, 56, said. “We had some good players. Obviously having Scooby and having him win just about every major defensive award in the country was exciting. But I enjoyed all of it.”
The program began to take a downturn in the ’14 Pac-12 Championship Game, a 51-13 loss to Oregon. Arizona would fall in the Fiesta Bowl as well.
Although the Wildcats finished 7-6 the following season, they were just 3-6 in Pac-12 play. They needed a late-season upset of Utah in overtime to qualify for a bowl berth.
Dissatisfied with the defense and the state of recruiting, Rodriguez decided to make significant staff changes. He fired three defensive assistants: Casteel, Lockwood and defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich. Casteel and Kirelawich had been part of Rodriguez’s staffs dating to his days at West Virginia more than a decade earlier.
Casteel and Lockwood surely were upset at the time; no one wants to get fired. They also understand how the coaching business works, especially in the ultra-competitive world of big-time college athletics. The carousel never stops spinning.
“It is what it is,” Casteel said. “You move on from those things.”
Two years later, just as suddenly, Arizona fired Rodriguez. Lockwood didn’t have much to say about his former boss’ departure, which sent shockwaves through the UA locker room and beyond.
“Once we were gone, we were gone,” Lockwood, 52, said. “You don’t get caught up in it. Unfortunately, things happen.”
Nevada defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, who was paid as much as $500,000 a year as Arizona’s DC from 2012 to 2015, is the top-paid Wolf Pack assistant coach at $238,703.
Deeper connection
Both coaches found rewarding experiences away from the football field.
Casteel remained in Tucson. He and his wife, Rosemary, commuted regularly from Oro Valley to Flagstaff to watch son Jake play for NAU. The younger Casteel, who played at Salpointe Catholic High School, just completed his final season as a linebacker for the Lumberjacks.
“I think I saw all 12 of his games,” Jeff Casteel said. “I had not gotten a chance to watch him play since … really the third grade. I think I’d seen five or six games up to that point.”
Lockwood and his family stuck around through spring before returning to the Philadelphia area, where he’s from. He got to spend time with an uncle who would die from liver cancer.
“Things happen for a reason,” Lockwood said. “I guess we were meant to be home at that time.”
Lockwood also served as a volunteer coach for youngest son Jeffrey’s high school team in Middletown, Delaware. Jeffrey’s older brother, David Jr., graduated from Tucson High. Their older sister, Autumn, played soccer for Arizona.
Casteel’s daughter, Sarah, is a current UA student. She’s set to graduate this spring. Rosemary worked for the school and earned a master’s degree there.
When you’re in one town as long as Casteel and Lockwood were, the connection goes beyond the job. Tucson always will mean something special to them. Lockwood will remember it as the place where his wife, Heidi, beat breast cancer.
When the Wolf Pack touched down at the airport Wednesday, the team received a warm greeting. Casteel wasn’t surprised.
“If you know anything about Tucson,” he said, “that’s the kind of people here.”
