re: How big of a jump will LSU's defense really make in the upcoming year with new faces.

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I have no idea what House was teaching them as far as basics, but you could see fundamental tackling skills were nonexistent.

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SOME of that was pure bad luck and circumstances.

If you remember, 2022 defense was ok, Special Teams was abysmal. House (defense) was given the responsibility to coach the kick coverage teams, in addition to actual defense.
Then before the season, we lose the D Line coach.

Consider that House had been a DC (mostly overall schemes) at Kentucky, then a position coach in the NFL- you don't teach fundamentals in the NFL. You polish the position groups. So he hadn't been teaching much fundamentals for a few years.
Suddenly, he has to scheme the defense, scheme half the ST, coach up the linebackers, spend time coaching up the D Line since they didn't have a position coach, and the secondary was raw and needed help.
Not saying he shouldn't have been better, but he got overextended, stretched too thin doing things he just isn't the best at. And that's with what basically turned out to be 1 returning player from last year's D- Perkins, who was just a freshman. Wingo went down, his other experienced guy. Brooks was supposed to tie down the secondary, he's gone. The rest, you have guys new to the system, and/or not good enough to start.

Meanwhile, Denbrock had the entire offense returning, with 2 future OCs coaching under him.

Hopefully next season is a "normal" one, and the guys get into shape and play well.