Arizona football: UA recruits react to dismissal of Casteel, Kirelawich

The Wildcats lost one 2016 commitment following the news in junior college linebacker Kapri Doucet, but so far no others, to the Star's knowledge, have followed suit.

Defensive lineman Justin Holt was the first player to commit to the Wildcats back in March 2015, and so the local Salpointe Catholic product has understandably developed a relationship with both Casteel and Kirelawich, who was set to be his position coach at Arizona.

Holt, a 3-star recruit, is "still solid" with Arizona, he told the Star, but was "pretty shocked" by the news.

"I was pretty frustrated with it," Holt said. "I always liked Coach Casteel and Coach 'Kirlav'. They’re good people before they’re coaches, and now I’m not gonna get to play for them, so i’m kind of frustrated.

"They’ve always been good with me. With them, I really knew where i stood."

As for the next staff, Holt added that it would be "cool" if the team promoted Vince Amey — currently an "analyst" on staff — to defensive line coach and switched to a 4-3 defense. Arizona had run a 3-3-5 "odd stack" front with Casteel as coach. 

"It's a serious situation over there," Holt said about the coaching change, "so we'll just see what happens."

Kahi Neves, on the other hand, was set to play linebacker for Casteel after switching from quarterback as he de-committed from Utah a couple weeks ago. 

Neves is "still 100 percent committed" to the Wildcats, he said. 

"I’m actually a big fan of Coach Casteel," Neves said. "He’s a really good guy. I got to know him when I came out for my visit."

Here's a tweet from 2016 target Josh Allen, a defensive line recruit from Long Beach City College.

Allen had already been committed to Arizona at one point before de-committing a few months ago, but the Wildcats are still hot on his trail.

Arizona defensive coach fire love the love from those coaches

— JayJay (@2LiveStokess) January 4, 2016