We all know the history:

2016 - Came in, instituted a 4-3 (what he knew), and it ran well considering the talent that Bronco had left behind.
2017 - A lot of the talent graduated, d-line became a weakness, the defense struggled
2018 - Coaching staff made the decision to swap back to a 3-4 defense given we were thin at d-line.
2019 thru 2022 - somewhere in late 2018 to early 2019, the dreaded drop 8 became the staple of the Tuiaki 3-4 defense. Famously (or infamously at this point), it did work to great success against Kedon Slovis, a true freshman QB for SoCal. Occasionally, such success would pop up again, for example when Jordan Love looked like he'd never before seen a zone defense in his life. But against the better teams on the schedule, the opposing OC would usually decide that if Tuaiki really was going to run the same, basic, drop-8 defensive play call all night long then they'd just attack the known weaknesses of such a basic defense all night long and call it a game.

When Bronco dropped his beloved 3-3-5 for the 3-4, the man spent every single off season first, studying how to even run it, and then studying how to keep making it better. BYU became known for running NFL level schemes and blitzes under Bronco, but only because Bronco spent the time to learn them. Tuiaki couldn't figure out how to make his blitzes successful (an absolute requirement for running the 3-4), so he'd just quit blitzing and instead sit back in the "drop 8" and hope the opposing team would make mistakes.



Jay Hill comes in and says we're running the 4-3 cause it's what he knows. He took a look at the roster and started bringing in the players he needed to run his 4-3. That's the difference. Hill's been determined to run what he knows and get the players he needs to do it.