I'm wondering if Howell suffers from one of the same weaknesses as Crowton regarding teaching execution.

I believe that Crowton's biggest weakness as an OC was his lack of ability to teach his guys to execute the plays. He was a great play "designer," but not a great play "teacher." No matter how great a play looks on paper, if your guys can't execute the play, it will likely fail. This is what we saw during Crowton's years -- well designed plays that just didn't work.

I look at Howell's defense and it's shocking how many guys are going in the wrong direction, reading the wrong keys, and simply dong the wrong thing. In fact, someone should create a lowlight video of BYU defenders running into each other this year. It would be a LONG video.

I believe Bronco when he vouches for Howell's understanding and hard work. What I wonder is if Howell knows how to communicate his schemes to the defensive players in practice. Like Crowton, this could be a case of having too many plays in the playbook for college kids to grasp, or if it's not running the right drills, or requiring the right film study, etc.

I'm not absolving the players from having to do their part and certainly inexperience would magnify this issue. But, great coordinators teach their scheme so completely that the players don't have to think on gameday. Frankly, with the IQs of many D1 athletes, this is the only way to ensure assignment sound defenses.