...a decline to some degree shouldn't be a surprise to anyone (lost 84% of our defensive production from 2020 and playing a tougher schedule) but it wasn't like the new guys who moved into starting roles on D for 2021 were first year players.

Last night I watched the BYU - Utah game again loved what we saw from our defense in that game even with the sloppy tackling at the point of attack on Micah Bernard and others. Tuiaki mixed up his coverages, disguised his blitzes well and frequently surprised Utah by changing up when he brought the heat (blitzing on 1st or 2nd down, different areas of the field, etc). He did a masterful job of mixing bend but don't break with the element of surprise. The bend but don't break was there but we didn't rely solely on it, kind of like a pitcher who only throws fastballs. We mixed in curves, off-speed and changed up locations nicely to keep their offense off-balanced.

It's my hope that in 2022 we see that Tuiaki defense on the field (the plan we had vs Utah) and not the Tuiaki D that we saw vs USF, Boise St or UAB.