plenty of people have praised the D. I have consistently said they were Championship level and that the O, specficially was not quite there. ST were meh to below average.
unless you have some ethereal RB like Ricky, or the D is the 85 Bears, the QB is discussed as "leading the team" in almost any football context. I'm not sure that anyone said Quinn "turned the program" around, do you have that in writing somewhere, numbers of times? I have seen people say he upgraded the position to the extent we could compete for an NC because the QB touches the ball every play and is very important. He may have helped get some better players to come to Texas by transferring to us. There is no other position on the team that is a "unit" unto himself. except maybe kicker(sorry I had to bring K up).
Yes, the coach turns the "program" around. We are in a position that better play from any one group, including QB, could have put us over the top. and that is because of the head coach, who is also, crazy enough, responsible for the play of said group.