Let me preface this by saying, I don't think he's on Bronco's level or even close to it. But I also think he was left with a pretty bare cupboard this year.

Dline - They took the 1 talented player and moved him to LB where he has been awful. This was likely not Howells decision. The rest of the Dline is just not good, young, undersized, etc .... Their deficiencies are not on Howell imo.

The LB's - Warner - true freshman, Langi - was a RB and only got back from his mission a few months before the first game so basically worse off than a true freshman, Stout - wasn't great before he got kicked out of school and then had to sit out a year, Pikula - obviously doesn't know where he should be on any given play. He's had 3 years to learn it so thats on him. Takitakit - True freshman ..... So there is talent but its all VERY VERY YOUNG and VERY VERY INEXPERIENCED. Tough for a D coordinator to overcome that. Oh yeah, Kafusi - He's not a LB'er

Secondary - JJ coming off an ACL never looked quite right, Trammel must be horrendous, Davis was a WR then a DB then a WR then a DB ... hasn't had time to progress, Preator - no one expected anything from him and he played solid. Daniel - had a worse year than last, not sure why. Bills - overrated unless you prize a big hit or two a game, Leavitt - was playing DB last year ... still very young.

So the D was bad, but it goes beyond a Howell promotion. There are ebbs and flows in talent ... especially at BYU where depth will always be an issue. So there is an off year in talent and experience and then add a ton of injuries and you should expect them to struggle.

I expect them to be much better next year. The young guys will be much better. Howell should be better. Lets just be realistic though, its not like Howell was calling plays where the team had no chance to succeed. He had a bad hand deal to him.