Espn classic showing our bowl game versus Cal with Aaron Rodgers

Think this game was after our 03 season. Brings back a lot of memories and watching I realize some things were a little different than I recall and others were way different than I have chosen to remember

Let's start with the positive:
1.) Kevin Jones was an absolute beast. I didn't recall him being THAT good but he was. We haven't had a back close to that good since he left. Ryan Williams when healthy which wasn't that often could maybe join the convo but that's it.
2.) It wasn't hard to spot the talent of MV5. Randall was our starting QB in this game (and looked great himself) but it was unbelievable to see how much talent MV5 wasted.
3.) Ernest Wilford isn't given the credit he deserves for being a really good WR for us.
4.) The defense was loaded with big names and talent. D Hall, Jimmy Williams, the oldest Fuller, Darryl Tapp and a bunch of others that are remembered as great players

Now for the negative:
1.) The defense absolutely sucked. Watching this game brought back memories of there being a couple years (I think maybe the 02 and 03 season) in particular that we were terrible. Not basing this observation on this game alone as I know we were playing Arod. But our tackling, positioning, and coverage techniques looked laughable. You could also tell this D had no interest in playing together. You could sense several players were all about themselves only out there for themselves. This looked absolutely nothing like a VT defense.

2.) Our kicking efforts were atrocious.

I remember us having a good defense in 04. So my main question is...what changed from that 03 to 04 season.??? I realize we haven't been great every year from 04 on but at worst we have been light years better than this D was. Did we change schematically or have some changes with position coaches or what was the deal here? Thanks for yor feedback.