It’s no secret that the Idaho State defense was the weak link of the team during the 2012 season.

    What will be a secret, however, is how it improves, and least for now. Head coach Mike Kramer has closed fall camp to outsiders this year, and the reason is simple; it’s time to focus on football.

    “I’m excited to see us, bigger and stronger, play better,” he said. “I’m excited to see us play more consistent and in control on defense.”

    And according to Kramer, he can pinpoint the exact moment in time when his defense went from serviceable to sorry: Sept. 22 in Lincoln, Neb., a 73-7 defeat to the Cornhuskers where ISU lost two players to season-ending ACL injuries in the first half, including starting safety Tanner Davis.

    “We never regained any type of thought processing that we could be successful,” Kramer said. “We would be successful at times, but we would cave in. And when we caved in last year, holy moly, no one went to the bathroom because you were going to miss a touchdown, a long one. All the sudden we were getting avalanched.”

    But like Timon and Pumbaa from Disney’s “The Lion King,” the Bengals are putting the past behind them.

    “It’s going to be such a great contrast, and it’s going to be harder for you guys, I think, as we get good defensively, for you guys not to draw comparisons,” Kramer said.

    And the table is set for improvements across the board. A reworked coaching staff that features co-defensive coordinators Spencer Toone and Roger Cooper will be the linchpin.

    “We made a lot of changes in the offseason,” Kramer said. “A lot of those changes that, in my mind, appear to be beneficial.”

    The head coach himself is taking a step back from the defensive coordinator duties he held the last two seasons to, well, be the head coach.

    “My world is bigger,” Kramer said. “I can see everything all the time, and I think that will do nothing but make me a better head coach and give this program what it needs, which is more strategic leadership from its head coach.”

    Kramer added that the defensive playbook is about one-fifth the size it has been.

    Even though the endgame is and always will be the same, — win — the style and timbre of the coaching staff’s message to the players will change.

    “(We want) a more consistent, thorough approach from our coaching staff (and) a more programmable understanding series of expectations rather than encompassing everything,” Kramer said.

    Fall camp begins today at 4 p.m. The Bengals’ first game is Sept. 7, a home contest against Dixie State.