When the regular season ended I decided to go through every base statistic for Louisville's defense while comparing those stats to the 2018 and 2017 season. Bryan Brown’s defense improved in nearly every area over the 2018 class. They also were better than the 2017 defense in a small handful of spots as well as being close in others. The results led me to a really simple reasoning for why the defense struggled so much this year: recruiting.
There are consequences when it comes to recruiting. Those consequences can lead to a roster full of guys that go on to make All-Conference teams or play in the NFL.