Our defensive decline was directly related to Tom Allen and his inability to sign an SEC quality linebacker in 5 seasons or however long he was here.  He was a great motivator but I don't think he had much input on game planning.  He was the ST coach and I saw no improvement or decline when he left so I think that probably speaks to his coaching ability. 
We finally ran out of players that could be plugged into the LB spots to cover for the kids we missed out on each spring.  We all saw the end results and they weren't pretty. 
Factor in that Kiffin and Womack most likely knew they were not returning along with some key injuries and you have the perfect storm of last year's collapse. 
We have nowhere to go but up defensively.  Our new LB coach is supposedly a big time recruiter but his coaching skills are suspect to say the least.  I'm a firm believer in Tub's approach.  Get me a staff of great recruiters and I can teach them how to coach.  Great players make great coaches.  McGriff is a solid upgrade and I think Jason Jones has done well.  We started two true freshmen at Corner last year.  Who knows how well they actually were since we were so poor in run defense teams didn't have to throw much against us.  But I suspect they will be better this season.

MeridianOMRebel wrote:

I think lack of talent at LBs and the youth in DBs was a big problem for us. I do think losing Allen (as well as McGriff) hurt us on the defensive side of the ball.

I had forgotten that McGriff departed for New Orleans also.

I'm embarrassed to say I can't even remember who the defensive coaches were under Nutt.  I remember Rocker, Price and the coach under investigation for ACT score fixing. 
Here are a few of the players I can recall that Freeze's staff inherited that were big time players:
CJ Johnson
DT Shackleford
Sedarious Bryant
Nutt's last class had several big time contributors for us.  Cody Pruitt was part of that class also if I recall?
I may have some of those kids wrong.  Regardless LB has been a glaring miss and one I always point to when our opponents claim we are cheating.  Perfect response is "IF we were cheating don't you think we would have signed at least one SEC quality LB over those years?"
Case closed.

I think Tom Allen was a big reason for the success early on. Nutt couldn't do anything with those guys and then they went crazy on defense.

I remember Vaught being quoted in his book that he won most of his games on talent alone. They quoted a percentage but I do not remember the number.

Vault got his team emotionally up for a few games each year.

I remember the 1969 Tennessee game; hay and mule out front of Miller Hall, leaflets dropped from an aircraft. Hap, what else did Vaught do? I also remember the numerous panty raids we conducted Tennessee week -- Hee Haw.

Rebelbowhunter wrote:

Sooper_Rebel wrote:

I think Tom Allen was a big reason for the success early on. Nutt couldn't do anything with those guys and then they went crazy on defense.

I will have to agree to disagree on Tom Allen.  There was a reason Freeze didn't offer to retain him when he was being interviewed for other jobs.  Not that Freeze has any remaining credibility but at that time it was relevant.  
Great players can make mediocre coaches look really good.  
See Tyrone Nix as an example.  Also Tracy Rocker.