Some of it is certainly on the players, where our guys simply haven't been executing like they should. Sometimes, the coach can do everything right, but when your players screw up, all you can do is pull your hair out. After all, if Ricky Watters didn't have a severe case of fumble-itis in 1990 (especially against Stanford and Colorado), we could have added another NC trophy.
Execution on the defense has been a disaster. Tackling and pursuit have been horrible, and I've seen more Ole`! moves in these last four games than I have in the entire last season. Some of the blame does fall on the players here, especially due to inexperience, but a lot of it falls on the players for being sloppy. The defensive line was supposed to be our strength and forte, but they can't generate any kind of pass rush, and it makes these freshmen and redshirt freshmen quarterbacks look like established 5th year starters gunning for Heisman seasons.
A lot of the blame does fall on Brian Van Gorder, who tried to fit too many round pegs in square holes, and was in over his head. The way I see it, he was the wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe it is all too similar to what we experienced in 2009 with Jon Tenuta, where his "jailbreak blitz every down" philosophy cost us four, possibly five wins...
Right now, the depth chart on defense doesn't look very promising for the rest of this year. When you have that many true freshmen and inexperienced sophomores on the 2-deep, you're not going to be able to hang in there with the big boys. In a way, it almost look as if the 2016 defensive squad resembles the 2007 offensive squad, where the very meaning of ineptitude was well-defined.
The biggest blame here, though, falls on Coach Kelly. It's not quite the same situation where the worst years of recruiting in 2004 and 2005 led to that disaster. This is Kelly's team, 100%, and everyone on that team is someone who he recruited and developed. He doesn't have a "bare cupboard" excuse card to play, and he's played his last mulligan for the season by discarding Van Gorder.
I'm willing to give him a chance to salvage this season, though. He's not going to be able to fix the defense during this year, barring some holy miracle and divine intervention, but he can at least help slow the bleeding that's coming out of a punctured aorta right now.
Thankfully, the offense seems to be doing fine. We're scoring 38 points a game, give or take, and we can move the ball on anyone. We don't have to stop opposing offenses, just slow them down enough.