Casteel helps carry offense

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 29, 2006 by Linda Hamilton Deseret Morning News

Sending receiver Brent Casteel wide on running plays wasn't working Saturday afternoon for the Utes.

"They were doing some things defensively where his run plays weren't very good," said Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, noting the plays were forced wider than the Utes wanted. "They took that away.

"But then that gave him the one-on-one matchups in the passing game."

And that turned out to be an important adjustment for the Utes as Casteel caught a career-high three touchdown passes from Brett Ratliff in Rice-Eccles Stadium, and the Utes broke a two-game losing streak with a 45-23 victory over UNLV.

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"Brent's a good player and got some one-on-one matchups vs. safeties, and we were able to protect the passer and get the ball out, and Brett made some nice plays," Ludwig said.

And when UNLV used man coverage, he said, many of Utah's screen routes are designed for it, so all he had to do was run good routes.

Casteel, a sophomore, made five catches for 86 yards and started Saturday's scoring parade with a 27-yard reception, his longest of the day, early in the second quarter.

"This guy is the man. He's a great player," Ratliff said of Casteel. "He improves in every game. He's the guy that we need to get the ball to, and that's what we tried to do today."

Casteel's 19-yard reception converted a Malakai Mokofisi interception into a momentum-building, Rebel-deflating score with less than 15 seconds left in the first half.

He nearly had a fourth-touchdown catch when he caught a ball near the goal line and thought he'd gotten in, but was ruled down at the 1-yard line. Two plays later, sophomore tight end Colt Sampson caught a 2-yard pass from Ratliff for his second career reception and first touchdown.

"I felt like I was in, but I guess you can't argue with the refs," Casteel said. "I thought I made it in there."

But it made way for Sampson.

They sort of exchanged misfortunes later when Sampson thought he had a touchdown but wasn't inbounds.

"Casteel scored on the next play, so I was happy," said Sampson of Casteel's third score that made it 45-6 at 4:01 of the third quarter.

Casteel was also involved in the game's oddest play, which came before his third score. Utah's Marquis Wilson returned a punt 27 yards to the 50 but tossed the ball to Casteel, who ran to the end zone, only to have the play called back to the Ute 30-yard line on two penalties. Wilson was called for an illegal forward pass, and the Utes got unsportsmanlike conduct in the end zone.

"I know he threw it back, but the ball bounced forward, so I guess that made it look like a forward pass," Casteel said.

Utah used nine receivers in the game, including Ratliff on a reverse-and-throw.

"We have a deep receiving corps," said coach Kyle Whittingham, steadfast that when he'd said the same thing back in July, he was right. "It's receiver-by-committee, but we're getting production there."

E-mail: lham@desnews.com

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Casteel helps carry offense

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 29, 2006 by Linda Hamilton Deseret Morning News

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