At risk of oversimplifying matters, I just looked up defensive points allowed per game. This is how we fared:
2017: 21.5 PPG (#31 in the country)
2018: 18.2 (#13)
2019: 17.9 (#12)
2020: 19.7 (#14)
2021: 19.7 (#15)
2022: 23 (#39)
Check out the 2022 College Football Team Defense and more about College Football at Sports-Reference.com
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So, no meaningful difference the Lea years and Freeman's year as DC. Yes a bit of a dropoff in 2022, but still above average. And I wonder how much of that could be attributed to our often-inept offense putting the D in tough spots. Perhaps some advanced stat-head know which dataset accounts for offensive incompetence.
Either way, I've never thought of Freeman as some Xs and Os genius, so much as a leader of men. Both are important to coaching, but a head coach can hire the Xs and Os part. He can't hire the leadership. I will say I'm not entirely sold on Golden. But on the latter front, Freeman is doing just fine.