I don't think it's possible to have a tough defense that practices against a spread offense every day. It's just an attitude that affects the entire team.
I actually liked what Tuberville was trying to do there in moving away from the B12 culture into running the ball and playing some defense. Don't keep up with Tech so I'm sure you know far better than I do what happened there... Did he just not really want the job?
And yes, 1bigfan13... The "beat each other up" theme does only work for the SEC. No other conferences allowed.