Despite letting Jennings get beat on the last TD, Sterns is much better deep against the pass than he is coming up to stop the run. He is the opposite of B Jones. Also remember it took B Jones until his 3rd year to take good angles. Sterns will be fine, but he has hit the freshman wall.
Malik last year was able to make the plays required of the Mac linebacker. Remember how often we showed a light box and invited the run, and somehow still stopped it for minimal gain. The defensive structure is capable of working, but right now it is not. That is on both the players and the coaches.
The problem for the coaches is they have repped this scheme and not other schemes. If you decide to scrap it and go to something else, it isn't guaranteed to work. 4 DL might help, but it also might cause more mistakes as gap responsibilities have changed.
Having said that, I hope the coaches realize that Tech and ISU are perfectly capable of exploiting the current defense. At least make Kliff beat you with something other than 7 ypc on the ground.