There has been legitimate, marked improvement from the defense. It started last year. There was a clear difference and improvement from Tuiaki to Hill. Then we got banged up, weren’t as deep, and other offenses put up a lot of points (partly because of Retzlaff’s turnovers, but that’s not the point). But it was obvious where Hill was taking us.

Now, we have three games under our belt with this year’s defense. And while we’ve played bad teams, there’s still a lot of progress from last year. Our pass rush is getting home. We’re bringing confusing blitzes and sacking the quarterback. Our DBs, which have been a historically weak position for BYU, are the best we’ve ever had. So while we’ve played weaker competition, it’s easy to see how far the defense has come since last year and the years before.

Then look at Retzlaff. He’s put up good numbers (aside from his completion percentage), but his weaknesses are still there. He’s still too turnover prone. He doesn’t take care of the ball. And while the bad teams haven’t capitalized, we saw what happened last year when we turn the ball over. Teams roll us. He needed to fix his turnover issues and he hasn’t. So, while we’ve beaten bad teams, the issues are still apparent. He’s gotten away with bad throws and decisions he won’t get away with when we play good teams.

This is why you hear the “we’re playing bad teams” argument against Jake and not the defense. Improvement is clear with one and not the other.