Special teams ought to be the third if the team that is the easiest, quickest to fix. We were not great under Riley but we were about average or slightly above. We had a poor punter but generally we were not otherwise terrible.
It appears Frost has been relatively hands off the defense and Chins & Co have gradually improved things, at least to the point there was a reasonable faith in the defense to keep us in most games.
Special teams, despite a global search for kickers, have been very inconsistent and poor at times. This suggests, from an outsider’s perspective anyway, that the effort was increased in the limited area of kickers alone with little emphasis on the rest of ST performance. This is a HC fail imo.
It also appears Frost has focused mostly on a futile attempt to make HIS offensive system fit the Big Ten and the available talent, rather than implement a system to fit the players and opponents on the schedule. That is a long term strategy more than a short / medium term plan. Frost has - imo- run basically the same offensive scheme thru all 4 years and not surprisingly, achieved similar results.
Frost is a smart football coach but until the recent, drastic changes, he seemed unwilling or unable to change his system. I will remain hopeful until the season is underway that change is coming.