Arizona State hasn’t played since Nov. 28. West Virginia hasn’t played since Dec. 5. After 35- and 28-day breaks, they play in tonight’s Cactus Bowl. The Sun Devils are quite cozy in this environment. The Mountaineers gave it a shot.

Tuesday’s practice started around 5 p.m., and Holgorsen said it was “incredibly enthusiastic and very crisp.” Wednesday’s practice started a little after noon. Thursday’s practice began a little later in the afternoon and today’s workout is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Saturday’s Cactus Bowl against Arizona State kicks off at 10:15 p.m. at Chase Field. Holgorsen isn’t concerned about conditioning his players for the late start, though he considered later practices.

“Here’s the problem with that, and we talked about it,” he said. “You can practice later in the day, but there are bowl activities that you have to go to. There are dinners and functions. Say we let them sleep to 11 a.m. or 12 p.m., which sounds late, but it’s really not. If you let them sleep to 9 a.m. or 10 a.m., it will be noon here.

“Then you let them go to the pool for six hours or go buy a T-shirt and walk around, then you practice later in the day from 6-9 p.m., then your day is done. We will be as late as we can. If we’re not practicing, then these kids are going to probably walk around until whenever curfew is anyways. It’s all about getting their body clock to stay up that late, but I think that is overrated to be honest with you.”

The Sun Devils, meanwhile, are conditioned to the start time and had seven of their regular-season games start at 7 p.m. or later. They had practices on their nearby campus, which is about 10 miles and 15 minutes from Chase Field. Their biggest hassle was coming to Thursday’s media day activities at the Camelback Inn, a 30-minute trip from the team hotel.

“I think it’s great for us,” said Arizona State coach Todd Graham, the former WVU assistant and Pitt head coach. “I know when we went through things when we got to the end of the season, we were sitting waiting to decide where we want to go. I sat down with our seniors and this was where we wanted to go.”