I think we’ve all been thinking about this. Why not talk about discuss this? Dana Holgorsen’s helter skelter offense is designed to put a lot of pressure on the opposing defense. There is no huddle. There’s only a little bit of time between a whistle and a snap. When the ball is to be thrown, a quarterback wastes no time getting it to one of the four or five receivers.

It’s a physical test, but he mind must be conditioned, too. A tired player is a sloppy player.

There’s another side to this, too. Tempo offenses can make life difficult on their own defenses. If a team is in a hurry to snap the ball and move toward points, it can also be in a hurry to snap the ball and move toward punts or turnovers. Even a highly successful and efficient tempo offense that spends only a brief amount of time on the field can ask its defense to spend a lot of time on the field.

WVU’s defense is going to be youngish and feature some new faces and some players in more impactful roles, but it is in very capable hands. Right now, though, there is very capable hand-wringing about one particular dynamic: How to maintain on defense with a manic offense.

“Our challenge will be to play a good, solid defense around that,” Casteel said, “and if you go and look at the numbers on the other side of the ball with some of the high-tempo offenses, usually …”

He trailed off, but the point was clear. Elite offenses are oftentimes exclusive.

Of the 20 best – or is it worst? – in time of possession last year, only one team had a top 20 defense (Syracuse, No. 7).

That group included Oklahoma State and Houston, where Holgorsen recently worked as the offensivecoordinator (2010 at OSU and 2008 and ’09 at UH), and where he left an influence those teams still follow today.