Brown Announces WVU Defensive Coaching Staff Assignments

West Virginia University football coach Neal Brown has announced the defensive coaching staff assignments.

After serving in a defensive oversight role last year, Jordan Lesley is being promoted to defensive coordinator and will now coach the outside linebackers.

ShaDon Brown, WVU’s most recent coaching staff addition, will be the co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach. First-year assistant coach Andrew Jackson will be the Mountaineers’ defensive line coach, and Jeff Koonz and Dontae Wright will continue in their current roles as special teams coordinator/inside linebackers coach and safeties coach, respectively.

“I am pleased to announce the defensive staff assignments, including Jordan Lesley, as the coordinator,” Brown said. “The staff did a great job of coaching and teaching last year, and our defense was an important part of our team’s success.”

Lesley is in his third year on Brown’s staff, and Koonz and Wright are in their second year.

Though Brown’s announcement about his staff changes didn’t include specifics for Jeff Casteel, it’s assumed he will return to an analyst position. Casteel was hired in the spring of 2020 to serve as a defensive analyst, but was promoted to outside linebacker coach when Vic Koenning departed the staff in the summer. Having previously served as an assistant at WVU from 2001-16, Casteel now is expected to return to the analyst role for which he was originally hired by Brown.