… so what does Dana Holgorsen do with WVU’s defense?

What does the guy who once said he just needed to keep Jeff Casteel happy to keep the defense humming now do on that side of the three-sided ball? Casteel is gone. Holgorsen hired two people to share the duties atop the defensive flow chart. He handed the official reigns of his offense to Shannon Dawson.

Dana stepped back and … well, he lets his coaches coach.

“It’s probably hard to find guys like that, but it definitely frees you up to be able to interject and to be sure you’re headed in the right direction,” said linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator Keith Patterson.

DeForest and Patterson were the offeseason additions. Patterson is a 10-year college coaching veteran who last worked at Pitt with Todd Graham, who was a defensive coordinator when he was at WVU, but became deeply involved in offense as he progressed as a head coach.

Patterson finds Holgorsen’s approach unique, but effective.

“Sometimes a head coach can be too involved,” Patterson said. “Dana knows what he wants defensively and he laid out a blueprint and said, ‘Here’s what I want,’ and he hired a group of people and entrusted them to do what he wants. He’s not a hands-on-every-day, in-every-meeting coach, but he’s definitely the head coach and he knows what he wants on defense.”