Here's what I don't understand about a lot of you. It's your lack of understanding around what defensive stats actually matter.

SCORING DEFENSE is far and away the single most important defensive stats. Yes I understand the importance of, field position, turnovers, QB pressure, etc. It all matters, but at the end of the day, scoring defense impacts the outcome of the game the most. Can you keep your opponent out of the end zone? If the answer is yes, than the defense is doing it's job. If you look at the data, I think Tuiaki has actually done a pretty good of that. Especially considering the lack of edge talent we've had since he took over. Here's BYU's end of season rankings for scoring defense.

2021 - 51
2020 - 3
2019 - 54
2018 - 33
2017 - 52
2016 - 16

Consistently having a top 50 defense, with 2 top 20 defenses, one of which was a top 5 finish, is solid.

BYU doesn't have elite defensive speed. They have to play a very specific scheme based defense. It's predicated on doing your assignment, not making plays on a down to down basis. You do your job, and wait for the opponents offense to make a mistake.

Additionally, I think it's important to have appropriate expectations. Averaging a top 35 defense is good. In fact, it's right where we should expect to be. Listen carefully, BYU is NEVER going to have to talent / horses to consistently have a top 10 defense. Can we get that up to a top 35 to a top 25 defense consistently? Maybe, with BIG12 recruiting and power5 access, but it's not going to be an elite defense every year. It's just not in the cards for BYU.