Last year the Oregon defense was uglier than Willem Defoe in Marilyn Monroe's billowing white halter dress. They ranked 126th in scoring defense and 126th (third-worst in the country) in yards per game. They were 122nd in stopping third downs. Brady Hoke's first and only Oregon squad yielded touchdowns 80% of the time in the red zone, ahead of only lowly Bowling Green.

Two seasons removed from racing past the undefeated defending national champions in the Rose Bowl, the Ducks were massacred by Washington State in Pullman 51-33. They were pummeled 70-21 by Washington at Autzen a week later. Stanford bludgeoned them at home 52-27. The Cal Bears feasted on the Oregon secondary in a 52-49 overtime victory. USC trounced them 45-20.

Even Oregon State ran the ball down their throat, scoring the last 20 points of the Civil War with pathetic ease.

The wreckage piled up like exploding, tumbling, souped-up sports cars in a Fast and Furious movie. Oregon couldn't get a fourth quarter stop against Nebraska, and they couldn't stop a second-string quarterback in a heartbreaking last-minute loss to Colorado.

How do you turnaround a misery like that?

You start by hiring the best defensive coordinator you can find, footballscoop.com's 2016 defensive coordinator of the year in Jim Leavitt.

Leavitt knows how to put pop and fizz into a defense. In the four years before he arrived at Boulder, Colorado had ranked 10th or worse in the PAC-12 on defense every single season. The year before he arrived the Buffs ranked 114th in the country in total defense, numbers that get defensive coaches fired or demoted.

In 2015 they climbed to 85th, and last fall they reached 15th as Colorado won the Pac-12 South division championship, winning 10 games for the first time in 15 years.

The pre-Leavitt Buffaloes were stampeded for 39 points a game in 2014. That shrank to 27.5 in his first year, 20.5 last fall, less than half of what the Ducks allowed in their 4-8 campaign, 41.4.

Before that Leavitt coached San Francisco 49er linebackers Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman into a Super Bowl tandem.

A fiery, fired-up personality who is a master of technique and scheme, Leavitt knows how to get the most out of the available talent. Willis was a former Rivals 3-star recruit, and Bowman was a four-star when he entered college.

At Colorado, his pace-setting defense was built around outside linebacker/pass rusher Jimmie Gilbert, a Rivals 3-star when he came out of College Station, Texas. Defensive tackle Josh Tupou. a 3-star from Buena Park, California, 6-4, 302 pounds, and cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, a former 3-star from Oak Grove High School in San Jose.

In Boulder Leavitt worked with recruiting classes that ranked 66th in 2016, and 72nd, 64th, 66th, and 37th in the previous four seasons.

Right now, today, after a 2017 class that features five defensive four-stars, including two at linebacker in Sampson Niu and Isaac Slade-Matautia, two at cornerback in Thomas Graham and Deommodore Lenoir, one at defensive tackle in Rutger Reitmaier, Leavitt has more talent to work with than he's had at any stop in his coaching life.

He inherits a team that returns 10 starters, including 12 of 13 leading tacklers, with linebacker Johnny Ragin III being the only one of that group to graduate.

Around Leavitt Willie Taggart has assembled a defensive staff that includes Washington State strong man Joe Salave'a, cornerbacks coach Charles Clark and safeties coach Keith Heyward, all dynamite recruiters, all legendary for their ability to coach technique and communicate.

Leavitt's intensity and personality, coupled with his knowledge of the 3-4 scheme and principles, his ability to teach aggression, assignment discipline and creating turnovers, are likely to make this an improved unit from the beginning. They will have more pride. They will have a better understanding of what they are doing. They will get after the quarterback on passing downs and they will bow their back in the red zone.

Clark and Heyward are highly effective at teaching press coverage in the secondary, getting their cornerbacks to thrive and survive out on an island matched one-on-one with receivers. They'll teach defensive backs to find and contest the ball. They'll eliminate that maddening 12-yard cushion on third downs. This will result in more disruption and more sacks.

Like former Oregon D-line mentor Jerry Azzinaro, Salave'a excels at developing intensity and hand-fighting skills in his defensive linemen. They'll be better at getting off blocks. The powerful Polynesian sets a fierce example in the weight room. He's massive, passionate and inspires a warrior's mentality and pride in his front line. Big newcomers like Austin Faoliu and Jordon Scott will get the teaching they need to develop. Drayton Carlberg, Gary Baker and Rex Manu will get the push they need to become better players.

Leavitt inherits former 4-star recruits Ugo Amadi, Keith Simms, Bryson Young, Lamar Winston, Tyree Robinson and Brady Breeze, plus freshmen All-Americans Brenden Schooler and Troy Dye, two players who were underrated coming out of high school but combined for 165 tackles in their first season, earning starting jobs after stellar fall camps.

The days of intimidated, ineffective defense are over, and the Ducks have the offensive talent and experience to score with anyone. The first-year improvement is likely to be dramatic and measurable, even astonishing. On the Oregon defense, the cupboard is far from bare, and at their previous stops, this staff has accomplished far more with less.