The defensive staff took plenty of heat the past few years. There's no question that they earned their bonuses this year.
-Chris Ash's work speaks for itself. I think most people on this and other message boards will gladly recant some of complaints they had about his defense earlier in the season. It's always best to let the process work itself out before raising pitchforks early in a coach's tenure.
-Cornerback looks like it will be strong in the coming years. Kerry Coombs deserves plenty of credit for helping these guys out. His work with Cameron Johnston and the special teams coverage also cannot be overstated, especially for getting guys like Bri'onte Dunn to buy into something as unheralded as the kickoff team.
-Everett Withers was an albatross on this coaching staff. Solid recruiter but his refusal to play Vonn Bell for most of last season was the single worst personnel decision this team has made since playing Joe Bauserman in 2011. The personnel in 2013 and 2014 has not changed enough to simply blame last season on the players. It's astounding that the same defense that failed to make any improvements in two years under Withers was able to stop three Heisman finalists in consecutive games.
From everything I've read Withers would undermine Luke Fickell and the other coaches behind their backs, and his departure to JMU for a significant pay cut is pretty telling of what Urban thinks of him.
-I love Mike Vrabel and think he's an excellent coach but Larry Johnson was one of the few coaches who would qualify as an upgrade. The rotation of the defensive linemen was huge late in the year, especially against Wisconsin and Oregon. Vrabel was too reluctant to dig into the depth chart and they seemed overworked at the end of last season. That strategy, especially with Spence out for the whole year, would have failed this year.
-Fickell knows how to teach linebackers when they have his undivided attention. That's not to downplay his larger role with the overall defensive gameplan, but it would appear that he had too much on his plate the last three years and couldn't help the linebackers as much as they needed. Everyone improved throughout the season and it was especially rewarding to see Curtis Grant play at a high level.
