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

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Ooooo, that’s not true, and THAT is not close! You must have missed some years

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House's first season probably takes him off the top of the list...but not by much.

Tepper was bad. His defense tanked what should have been a very good 1998 season. Dinardo then doubled-down in 1999 and lost his job as a result.

Pelini in 2020 was bad. But I tend to put that more on the stupidity of Orgeron. Pelini was brought in specifically to run Ed O's "wet dream late 80's Miami/early 00's USC defense". This, despite the fact (1) LSU didn't really have the personnel to do so and (2) offensive football had changed a LOT since those defenses were effective. Ed just had so little actual understanding of the intricacies of the game that he didn't appreciate that. No DC could have succeeded under that buffoon of a HC dictating the defensive approach. That's why in 2021 the defense suddenly went from shite to dominant after the bye week when Ed got out of the way.

But NEITHER of those defenses had a best in the nation offense to work with. Not even close! Because LSU was so dynamic on offense last season the bar for "success" by the defense was incredibly low. And House couldn't even reach arguably the lowest bar in LSU history (or at least the 2nd if you feel the 2019 was even more dynamic than 2021).

So while House may not be the worst simply because he had 1 decent year and Tepper didn't. I think his performance this past season was the single worst defensive coaching performance in LSU history given the circumstances.