— Can the defense improve, at least a little, yet this season?
Can they? Certainly. Will they? Uncertain. Look, we lost 7 starters to graduation so we already knew it was going to be a young and inexperienced squad, but we were hopeful they would get some tune up OOC games to prepare for a B1G slate and things wouldn't be that bad.
Then COVD hit, and spring ball was cancelled. So now they are missing out on crucial practice time where they are figuring out how to play with each other, anticipate where their teammates will be, and cover each other's weaknesses. In addition Braelen Oliver got injured, so we lost a projected starter.
Then the season became conference only, and then was cancelled, so fall practice was not what it was supposed to be, more lost time just getting the new starters to gel with each other. When the season resumed, we had an accelerated fall practice schedule and now were playing a ranked opponent.
What started as just losing 7 starters (which was already not great) turned into the perfect storm of events to prevent the new starters from really becoming a unit. They certainly can turn it around, but it is going to be very tough. I hope they will though.
— Will we get some key players back, and in time to make some impact?
The only players we can really expect to get back are our FG specialist and new punter. They both will have a positive impact when they get back, but it will only help so much. FG Specialist will boost our FG range a bit, giving the offense some relief, and hopefully the new punter is as good as his stats seemed to say and will consistently pin our opponents deep in their territory, which will help the defense too.
Will it be a huge difference, probably not. Will it be enough to turn some potential close losses to close wins? Maybe.
— Is it possible that some of the newbies on defense will start to improve, with experience?
Possible, yes. Likely? Who knows, see above.
— Can the coaches regroup somehow, and pull a rabbit out of their hats?
I think so. More just a gut feeling though.
Look, as unlikely as it is we could still win out and be undisputed division champs. That is a very unlikely possibility it seems, but could still happen. If we do that, while I'll be disappointing in our early game performance I would consider the season salvaged.
Bare minimum, I'll take somehow beating Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska as a consolation even if we lose every other game.
