Jake Casteel

Jake Casteel

Title:
Assistant Coach / Linebackers / Assistant to Special Teams Coordinator (Kickoffs)
Email:
jcasteel@calpoly.edu

Assistant Coach (Linebackers) and Assistant to Special Teams Coordinator (Kickoffs) • Second Year • Northern Arizona '19
Recruiting Area: Bay Area / Santa Clara County

Jake Casteel, a defensive graduate assistant at West Virginia for the 2021 season, was hired as an assistant coach at Cal Poly in March 2022, assigned with the defensive ends as well as assisting with the special teams coordinator. He moved to the linebacking corps in February 2023.

Casteel was a linebacker at Northern Arizona from 2014-18 before launching his coaching career as a defensive graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2019. He joined the Boise State staff in 2020 as a defensive graduate assistant and filled the same position at West Virginia in the fall of 2021.

After redshirting the 2014 campaign at Northern Arizona, Casteel played in 44 contests over the next four seasons, making 250 tackles (125 solo), including a team-leading 90 in 2018. He enjoyed his finest season as a Lumberjack in 2018, notching 90 tackles, 2.5 tackles-for-loss, 1.5 sacks, and an interception.

A year prior, he was instrumental on a defense that helped the Lumberjacks earn an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs, the program's first postseason berth since 2013.

Casteel's father, Jeff, has coached football on the defensive side for over 35 years, 27 of them as a defensive coordinator. Currently a senior defensive analyst at West Virginia, he was at Nevada from 2017-19, Arizona from 2012-16, West Virginia from 2001-11, UTEP in 2000 and at Shepherd University, first as the defensive line and strength coach from 1988-90 and as the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator from 1991-2000.