I think DeBoer has gotten schooled in the importance of line play when you're facing top-tier talent and coaching every. Single. Stinkin'. Week. You can get away with less physical line play if you play only 2-3 strong teams in the regular season. It's an entirely different story in the SEC, especially now that it's a 9-game schedule.
To fix what we've seen the last couple of years, we'll need to tweak philosophy, develop talent and significantly improve S&C for the OL and DL. He's a smart guy, and I think he's seen what we all have. It may have surprised him, but he's recognized the issues and seems to be addressing them.
Philosophical tweaks are easiest.....if the coaches (DeBoer and Grubb) fully and sincerely buy in to a renewed emphasis on the run game. Which will depend on OL play that's something better than abysmal.
S&C can start showing improvement now, but that doesn't magically materialize in one off-season. It'll take a couple of years of gradual ramp-up before it fully matures. And that assumes it's already started, though I don't know if that's happened.
Similar on development of talent. We've had highly-ranked OL and DL recruiting classes for a while now. But we've all seen the deficiencies in on-field performance. Firing Kaplovic and replacing him with Klemm, and hiring new DL help from Oklahoma show that DeBoer is trying to fix the problem of not developing players. We won't know whether he's picked the right guys until around November 1.
