Imo, our offense has shown it can beat 2 of the 4 almost every year. Our D on the other hand, not so much.
You are right in the last of the Groh years. I do not defend Groh. I have hated his bend but don't break defense and wonder why coach let Groh do it? " MTSU scores again! is not defendable - which is why coach had to fire him.
Only reason coach kept believing that Groh was not the issue is he believed the TO let use use lessor talent and move the ball in the fourth quarter gassing the other teams defense - AND win these big games without the defense to be on the field extended time in second half. The TO will get that chance again.
Once we get the TO winning games ( albeit close ones, then we can ask the defense to win the really big games ( fsu) . Seems like the d did pretty well on defense against fsu and ucla.
Expect good things from the TO this year!
You are right to be concerned about the d this year as we are weak on DL depth . We will need scheme well and to bring pressure from lb and db. The texans nfl team did this about 4 years ago and it worked ( added Jj watts and went more conventional) . Defense is going to be a ride, but could get better as year goes by.