meltdown was too thorough and complete to be wiped away by a couple good wins to close the season, if that's what happens. With this season, no way we should have won any fewer than 10, even taking into consideration the injuries.

The obvious big ticket item for this season is the defense, and Howell's failure to get it done as D.C. Holding Cal to a reasonable point total would show improvement, but there is nothing that can be done the rest of this season that can redeem the defense. I really hope substantial changes are made in the offseason. I'd gladly accept Bronco as DC, but if he can't do it because of his head coaching duties, I'm all in favor of going out and hiring someone that can get the job done. I'm afraid that all we'll do is nibble at the edges - reassigning a couple GAs or something in an attempt to put more emphasis on the secondary - and that's not what we need. Holmoe could surprise us and force a bigger change - it's happened before just recently. We'll have to wait and see.

I'm not worried about the offense much. Anae is a solid, if unspectacular, offensive coordinator, and we have some talented QBs in the system and also on their way in to the program. We also have good receivers, although I'd love an injection of raw speed at some point, and the o-line is young an improving. Our running backs are sufficient, and if Williams makes it back healthy, we'll be quite good at running back.

So, it's about the defense. Which is a shame. There was no real reason why the defense had to take such a massive step backwards this year. Howell just wasn't able to see the issues before they blew up in his face, and Bronco wasn't engaged enough with the defense to notice, either, until it was too late. Big coaching mistake this year by a head coach I generally support.