Iowa State defensive co-ordinator Jon Heacock watches the warm-up before the game against UCF during the first quarter in the week-8 NCAA football at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
AMES — Forget Plan B.
Injuries plagued Iowa State’s typically rock-solid defense so frequently last season — especially at linebacker — that longtime defensive coordinator Jon Heacock felt like he was grasping at straws from quarter to quarter and week to week.
Or as he put it …
“I felt like we were trying to do so much stuff a year ago to try to help that we played defenses and not defense,” said Heacock, who saw his unit fail to rank among the top three in the Big 12 in terms of points allowed for the first time since 2016. “And that’s a hard way to live for a football team.”
That’s true despite contributing to a program record-setting 11-win season. ISU’s defense partially overcame it’s health-based shortcomings by ranking among the top three in the league in turnover margin for the second season in a row — and just the third time in head coach Matt Campbell’s 10-year tenure.
That bright spot, along with the healthy return of skilled linebackers such as Caleb Bacon, Will McLaughlin and Carson Willich could portend a return to stingy form for Heacock’s unit, which tried hard last but simply lacked experience in critical areas.
So Heacock and his position coaches took a deep look at what worked and what didn’t — a fact-finding mission that took them not only back to basics but back to the beginning.
“We were not very good a year ago,” Heacock said. “Statistically, fundamentally, coaching — all of the above. We just weren’t as good as we needed to be yet our guys played extremely hard and all those things. We’ve gotta get back, I think, going back a little bit to the fundamentals of what we put into this defense from ’17, some of the simple things that we had done back then that allowed our guys to play fast. I think that’s the key.”
Heacock’s been adept at springing that lock successfully. And his 2025 defense also showcases star power at each level as all-Big 12 performers Jontez Williams and Jeremiah Cooper return in the secondary, the linebacking corps is deep, and Domonique Orange is back to disrupt the interior.
They’ll all be looked to as leaders this season.
“That’s what summer camp’s about, is who’s gonna say what, when, and who’s gonna do what, when,” Heacock said. “Those guys all want to. They’ve had great guys in front of them for the past few years to watch, and I think they’ll just keep growing and getting better.”
BIG PLAY BRAHMER AND BURKLE
Former freshman All-American tight end Ben Brahmer found a silver lining while being banged up all of last season: Getting to watch Gabe Burkle blossom into a potent playmaker.
“I was happy for him,” said Brahmer, who broke the ISU true freshman tight end record for receptions with 28 in 2023. “He’s a great player. He does everything right. He knows how to work and he knows how to play.”
Burkle caught just two passes before November, but made 24 subsequent grabs to rank third on the team in receptions as a redshirt freshman last season.
“None of that success is just because of me,” Burkle said. “Obviously, it takes a village and Ben is part of that village. He helped me a ton in practice and in games, just telling me what he saw so I could make in-game adjustments or adjustments in practice.”
