Pass defense was unsatisfactory in 4 of the 5 seasons PK was here. They finished outside the top 60 in every season outside of 2024. It cost them a chance to play for a national championship in 2023 IMO when Penix just absolutely shredded the secondary. I don't blame the defense for the Ohio State loss in 2024, but that screen pass right before the half completely shifted the momentum of that game.
The comments Sark made this offseason about Muschamp being able to handle that side of the ball completely is probably the biggest factor though. PK had some troubles tying his fronts to the coverages. He brought in Patterson in 2022 and that seemed to help quite a bit. I don't think it was a coincidence that when he left in 2023 that they took a pretty big step backwards. Then in 2024 PK brought in Nansen to help, and that's when we saw the improvements in the secondary. It also didn't hurt that they were experienced and brought in a guy like Mukuba on top of that.
Lastly, Sark wants to be more aggressive on that side of the ball. The one game that really bothered me the last year was the Florida game. Lagway had a bad calf and was essentially playing on 1 leg. PK decided that not blitzing and playing soft zone coverage that day was what he wanted to do, and inevitably it failed, miserably. The Miss. St. game also stood out to me. Same game plan really to the Florida game, but when they got down by 3 scores in the 4th quarter, it forced him to be more aggressive. When they started bringing pressure and speeding up Shapen, they had a ton of success. Makes you wonder what that game had looked like had PK been more aggressive from the jump.
I also think Anthony Hill was misused in 2025. He was at his best when he was playing close to or at the line of scrimmage in passing situations. We just didn't see as much of that as we did in 2024 and it shows in his production. It hurt his draft stock a bit IMO.
