Idk why you are so defensive about this. L is a great coach. He has had a lot of great years here. That was a C+ type of season given the talent on the roster. The team was less than the sum of its parts.
Newton was a big time talent. He never improved after his freshman year here. He's probably the biggest player development failure of the L era. Maybe no coach could've gotten more out of him. All we know is L didn't.
Huell was a talented kid from day 1. He had many limitations, especially early in his career. But the job of a coach is to find ways to maximize what players do well. He didn't do that in 2017. Could another coach have done that? Maybe, maybe not. All we know is L didn't.
By you logic, coaches should never be given credit or blame for anything, since it always comes down to the players.