When a man in charge of one of college football’s best defenses quits to take on the challenge of overseeing one of the nation’s worst defenses, it raises the possibility of reasonable people wondering: Is he nuts?

Moments after former Southern California defensive coordinator Nick Holt was introduced Tuesday as Washington’s new defensive coordinator and assistant head coach, Holt was asked about all those observers left scratching their heads upon learning of his relocation from Troy to Montlake.

Replied Holt: “That’s a good point.”

The candid answer broke up the audience, Holt’s cue to go to work on a mission statement. Four minutes later, without pausing to inhale or exhale, with stopping to collect his thoughts, Holt finally wrapped up a response that rendered any further questions superfluous.

It included praise for his old boss, Pete Carroll (“an awesome mentor”), and even more lavish praise for his former USC colleague and new boss, Steve Sarkisian (“a tremendous, tremendous football coach. ... The best offensive mind in college football. ... A rising star. ... The best head coach in America”).

Holt talked of Washington’s “awesome alumni, awesome tradition and awesome people,” paid tribute to much-maligned Husky Stadium (“You don’t know what people from other universities think of this place”) and referred to the battered football program as “a sleeping giant ... the only Pac-10 school – besides USC – that’s won’s a national championship in the last 25 years.”

Surveying the aftermath of Hurricane Holt, Sarkisian smiled and said: “Any question why I wanted him?”

Combining the rah-rah salesmanship of Richard Simmons and the kick-butt mentality of Richard Butkus, Holt is a walking, talking, fire-breathing Isley Brothers hit: He makes you want to Shout!

And then run through a wall.

Skeptics will point out Holt benefited from an unlimited supply of blue-chip talent at USC, and that his record with less gifted athletes – he was 5-18 during two seasons as head coach at Idaho – suggests his real skill is as a negotiator able to coax a three-year contract from the Huskies potentially worth $2.1 million.

Furthermore, because the Trojans had the horses to line up and dominate opponents without having to rely on gimmicks, Holt did not develop a reputation for innovation at USC.

He organized the practices and assembled game plans, then turned defensive play-calling responsibilities over to Carroll on Saturdays.

Is paying $2.1 million to a defensive coordinator excessive, considering he had minimal input once the ball was kicked off?

Yes. Of course. It’s the textbook definition of excessive.

OK, now we can move on.

With the Huskies, Holt will have virtual autonomy of the defense, which is to say he’ll be both a strategist and a co-head coach.

“The first thing you have to remember,” Sarkisian said, “is that he’s going to speak to half our team every day, and I’m not going to be in that room. We’re going to be at team meetings, and we’re going to split up the offense/defense and he’s going to be talking to 50 guys every day and spreading the word of what we’re about and what we’re going to be.

“I’m going to use his voice for our football team. As you guys heard, you could feel his intensity.”

More important, when spring practice convenes, it’ll be the Huskies’ defense that feels Holt’s intensity. Veterans accustomed to the half-speed, save-yourself-for-the-real-deal workouts of the past might not be thrilled at the prospect of full-contact drills.

It is Holt’s determination to make them thrilled.

His practice philosophy, borrowed from Carroll, is that the energy created by crisp contact in the middle of the week transforms into a source of electricity at the end of it. Some prudence is necessary – whistles are blown before bodies hit the ground – but the idea is to put the players through a crash course in Physical Science 101.

Football is more physical than science.

Of 119 major college teams, the 2008 Huskies ranked among the bottom five in opponents’ passing efficiency, points allowed, tackles for loss and rushing defense.

And though usually productive, sometimes enigmatic linebacker E.J. Savannah has been welcomed back to the program, there are no miracle workers performing calisthenics on the horizon.

Sarkisian has hired a high-energy assistant who once played linebacker for the defunct football program at the University of the Pacific. He didn’t hire Lance Burton, the guy who makes cars disappear on the Las Vegas Strip.

But a sleeping giant already has been stirred from its slumber in the Pacific-10 Conference basement. The sleeping giant will show up in the fall knowing that while practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes for a very edgy game-day attitude.

Oh, and one more promise from Hurricane Holt.

“We’re gonna have fun,” he said.

John McGrath: 253-597-8742; ext. 6154

john.mcgtrath@thenewstribune.com