We went through this last summer and we’re going through it again this spring. There’s a lot of hyperbole involved in talking and thinking about Bruce Irvin. It seemed irresponsible and almost absurd last summer to project great success when he was doing one or two things, but doing them really well in preseason camp.

Then he had 14 sacks in 13 games and managed to take over some games and situations along the way.

He’s at it again, now as a guy making the transition to playing every down for WVU’s redesigned defense. What in the world are we to make of it this time?

All this success comes with some asterisks, though. Irvin is a pass-rush specialist without too many peers and the Mountaineers are putting in a pass offense in practice. On a lot of practice and scrimmage snaps, Irvin is rushing and Geno Smith or Paul Millard is passsing.

So, yeah, he’s getting a lot of chances to rack up a lot of sacks.

Add to that the fact he’s doing most of it against Quinton Spain and Pat Eger, who are, in essence, backup tackles subbing for Don Barclay and Jeff Braun, who have have been and will be out all spring as they recover from shoulder surgeries.

We know all of that. We also know this: Irvin came back to school because he wasn’t a finished product and he was obsessed with becoming one, to say nothing of sopping up the college experience. So far, so very good. Irvin is gifted. He’s proving it. To what extent, we’re just not yet certain.

Most of the time, Irvin is one-on-one at the line of scrimmage. Sometimes he’ll encounter a blocker in the backfield. He’s seen hardly any of a tight end, let alone two tight sets, and knows not only that he’ll see that in the season, but that teams will scheme like that to stop him.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, but I’ve got to see it,” Irvin said. “I’m the kind of person who’s got to see it and see it and see it before it starts clicking and I get fluent.”

Even the variety of blocking Irvin encounters now is a little light. No one’s going low. There are no cut blocks. No one’s throwing at his legs when he’s in the open field.

No wonder he’s doing stuff like getting three sacks in Friday’s scrimmage or tormenting the offense to the point offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen takes to taunting his group.

It’s fun and easy to get carried away with that, but maybe it’s a little risky, too.

“There are a lot of things when you come in and watch the last part of practice that really aren’t the way things are,” Casteel said. “I think we’ll have to wait and when we start practice in the fall for real is when we’ll get a chance to see how much improvement he’s made.”