The point is our defense wont be as good as last year. Our secondary was the best secondary in the nation and we lost three playmakers in prince, gomes and hagg. Our defense will probably go down a notch but will still be a good d
We lost both O'Hanlon and Asante and still had the best secondary in the country last year. The point is Bo kinda has an idea what he's doing over there and we have the depth now to reload. I don't automatically agree our defense will be worse this year. In fact, you could make a strong argument that we will have a better defense this year. The line is more experienced, and we're more experienced at LB. We're really only replacing 1 starter in the secondary considering we'll most likely be running a lot more 4-3 this year. Although I do agree it won't be easy to replace Prince.
Also, you cant really compare Safeties and CB's. CB's are, by far, the most important position on defense while the safeties are toward the bottom. What about our nickelback? Our dimeback? Our pass defense wont nearly be as good as last year because of losing the most important pass defense position...the cornerback!
And we return a legit All-American candidate at that position in Dennard. Only a few schools in the country can say that. Only one school in the country can say they return a legit All-American candidate at all 3 levels of defense - Nebraska. We still have a pretty experienced secondary and a more experienced defense overall. You said yourself experience is vital. If our line improves, and it should (being more experienced) won't that help the secondary? Maybe our pass defense won't be as good, but will it need to be? We'll be seeing more "running" teams than we did last year. It's really hard to compare since last year we basically ran a 4-1-6 most of the year, and the coaches have already said we'll be running more 4-3-4 this year. So obviously the secondary won't be "as good" with 2 less players back there. But it won't need to be. We're still basically returning 3/4 of our starters in the secondary. Your questions about the nickel and dime are fair, but those positions aren't as big of a need as they were in the Big 12. My biggest concern is lack of depth at LB, our secondary and line are loaded. I don't see how you can say our defense won't be as good, as if it's fact. Especially with one of the best defensive minds in the universe as our coach. Maybe it won't be as good, maybe it will be better, who really knows?