What Jaquan Johnson did last year (and the previous year) mentally will be incredibly tough to replace. Losing a kid like that, along with someone as athletic and experienced as Redwine....I just can't say the defense will be better. It just doesn't compute in my mind.
Also, I honestly feel that Gerald Willis played like a first-team All-America last season. I watched a ton of football last year, and I didn't see a more dominating kid at that spot in the entire country. If he was a choir boy and played at Texas or OU or Bama, he's on an All-America team. The person above who said there was no noticeable drop-off when he was off the field is laughable. He was an absolute force when he was in the game. Nobody we have is going to play to that level, and in Manny's scheme, having a kid get that much penetration from that spot is imperative to how he designs his defense.
I'm excited as **** for Rousseau. Shaq and Pinckney, as seniors, should be monsters. Garvin is a Top 3 round talent. Finley was awesome last year, and I expect him to improve. The safeties are going to be athletic and fast as ****. On the edges, we should be excellent. Bandy. The young corners. Silvera. There's a ton to be excited about here. Don't get it twisted, I think this defense is going to be violent and terrifying. But last year was absolutely special. I think this is getting lost around here....what we witnessed last year on defense was legitimately special. That defense was THAT good, with literally NO HELP from anyone else. The offense was putrid. The special teams were a stain on the program. Punting was DEAD LAST in America for god's sake. When we turned it over, it was immediate points in many cases. The pick 6 against LSU. The one down the 5 against UVA. The one in the redzone against BC. We didn't turn it over much on the opponent's side of the field last year. Average opponent's field position was one of the worst in the country. We were 87th in the country in time of possession. And the defense still excelled at literally every single metric. All by themselves.
I just can't say it's going to be better this year when you consider what we lost. That's a lot to expect out of the new kids. But **** it should still be an incredibly exciting, fast, violent defense. And if the kids on the backend can gel, look out.