I haven't been following things closely, but I do have a couple comments. The first is that Albin did not have a lot of time to implement any changes last year because he was unexpectedly thrust into the job just before the season. This year he has had plenty of time, so for better or worse, the results on the field will tell a lot about his true potential as a head coach. Another losing season, almost everyone will agree that he should be gone. Eight wins or more, and most will agree that he should be retained. Six or seven, and I expect he will have defenders, and also have those who think he should be gone.
Second, I did watch the presentation by Coach Nowinsky on his defensive philosophy, and I like his approach. It will be interesting to see how it works out on the field, but if the defense plays better, that should be worth a few additional wins. That, in turn, might give the whole team more confidence, and a turn around back to eight wins or more is not impossible.
As for last year, although Albin was made head coach about six weeks before the season opened, he had been here 16 years. It's not as if he was an outsider. After Burrow retired it seemed that he would be the logical choice to replace Solich, so he had a couple years to think about the possibility. He lost some games that should've been wins, which would've made a big difference last year. He was just plain out-coached by Duquesne and the Buffalo and BG losses were far enough into the season that Solich's retirement shouldn't be an excuse. One thing mentioned in the media day story was that he didn't delegate work well last year. Maybe because he didn't trust the people he had on staff, or maybe because he was just used to doing things himself. At any rate, he seems to know it's something he needs to do better this year.
As for Nowinsky, he seems to be a good one and the players seem to be buying into him. The big thing the D needs to do this season is to get off the field. Opponents converted 44% on third down and we had only eight turnovers in 12 games.