I'm sorry but when you compare the talent on D to what we had last year it is shocking. The players last year were so much better. Van Noy, Sorenson, Unga, Manumaleuna. Wow. Nobody on D is remotely close to those guys. Not much to work with for Howell, IMO. For the record, I'm not advocating "let's keep Howell", I'm just saying that if we are going to apply a "in 1st year, consider what they have to work with" argument, then there is nobody better to apply that to than Howell.