re: “Our defense is better now than at any point last year.”

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I personally think this defense probably was looking better than early last year but losing Stingley and Logan didn’t help.

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No evidence for this. This D is clearly worse.

Aranda was more limited in what he had, especially after the poor DL recruiting at the end of Miles's reign. He nurtured the D along, developed playmakers (like turning Queen into a first-round LB after he didn't start the year), and when the D was finally healthy after the Arkansas game (when Delpit sat out so he could heal his ankle), we gave up 270 ypg, and only 259 ypg against A&M, UGA, OKLA, and Clemson.

There was significant regression in DB technique, in players that were supposed to be promising last year, like Flott.