Myth. We had plenty of upperclassmen on the field, and some of our best performers are new to the program (e.g. Clair, Robinson). 8 players on defense had starting experience from last year, and we also returned Samdup Miller who had 3 years starting, and added Meiser and Pooler who were starters in their previous programs and hence, not inexperienced.
Our D was solid, now that we are done with the JON joke and bullshit of a defense. Agree with WaveJumper that Michigan was just better than we were, but we still held them to 10 points in the 1st half (not bad) and I think they just tired and got beat up in the 2nd half because the O kept handing it back. Its our O that's a bigger problem, specifically our OL. Anderson is an improvement on Cushing, but something is wrong that 3 years in, he still doesn't have more of his players ready to go. Bajakian is an improvement on McCall, but we really need Kevin Wilson or someone else who has some imagination to get creative and be able to beat offenses with some scheme and play calling. We are way too vanilla and I get that is on Fitz - we need to evolve like Walker and Wilson did and address our talent gaps with something that will offset it. Just lining up and trying to smash the other team as Fitz prefers isn't going to cut it. Even Saban knows that with his talent. Why we think we can do so with the talent that we are limited to (for lack of better recruiting) I have no idea, but we no longer have Hank to carry us and cover up our perenially mediocre and boring offense.
As for being a developmental program, we better not be one if we are going to improve our stock. We better be hitting the portal as aggressively as MSU did and fill out our needs every year. We failed to bring in 2-3 experienced OL that could have helped us and 1-2 LBs to boot. Iron sharpens iron, so bringing in the best players you can to force anyone else on the roster to play better makes a ton of sense. Especially since I think we should have an edge in attracting experienced and proven talent to Evanston.
FWIW, I think we are 4-3 and maybe 5-2 if we didn't have a trash DC and trash defensive scheme .to start the season. To be any better (which should be our aspiration every year) we need to recruit better that we do and find an O that can score more points with what we have.