Heacock Retiring

[CYdTracked]

Even if Campbell had not left, his retirement was eventually looming so who knows if he would have been back next season anyways. Was a great hire by Campbell and his defenses were the 1 thing that stayed pretty consistent from year to year over the past 10 years. Was dealt some tough hands at times too, last year it was injuries to the LB group this year the secondary and we still were able to get through that and accomplish a lot. Just go back and look at some of the masterpieces the defense had against ranked opponents or guys that were some of the best college players at the time that we completely shut down.

 

[CyBlitz]

And people were worried he was here to keep an eye on the talent. Hard to think of a DC in college that had a bigger impact than him. What a legend!

 

[Cyhig]

Best coordinator Iowa State has ever had. Congrats, Coach. Enjoy your retirement. Hope to see him at many basketball games

 

[norcalcy]

I wonder what percentage of wins were due to the defense and this legend.

Quite a few. Coach did an amazing job. A majority of the time, watching his defense was more fun than watching our offense for a lot of the past 10 years. As others have said, seems like a really good guy too.

 

[cyatheart]

Absolutely instrumental in this last ten year run. What he was able to do here was amazing. He's honestly almost as important as Campbell for what occured the last decade. Always seemed like a good human too. Enjoy retirement coach

I would say Campbell would not have been nearly as successful without Heacock. Great defensive mind.

 

[Tre4ISU]

Great statement. Sounds like something a real person would write out.

 

[CyVolk]

I too hope he stays in the area. He made a lasting impact on Cycone football and football players. I often felt his defenses alone contributed an additonal 2-3 wins each season. Campbell should be grateful Heacock stayed the duration.

 

[GoodyISU1]

I've certainly been critical of the bend don't break defenses he's had, but the man was able to consistently keep us in games with faltering offenses for years. True legend.

 

[CloneLawman]

Hell of a coach. Happy for him

Statue for him. He saved Campbell's bacon more times than not anyway.

 

[GetAwesome]

Now THAT is a social media announcement. Kids, take note.

Coach, thanks for all you gave us. It was a damn fun run!

 

[HopalongAtc]

Congrats to the GOAT & thanks for so many fun memories Coach!!! (Now, am I reading too much into a name that wasn’t mentioned in his announcement?) He may stay around Ames for a bit but does he have more family/grandkids in Ohio? Wonder if he will move back there? He needs to come to the first home game or next basketball game & get his ovation that he so deserves!!! No one did more with less!!! Cyclone for life! ️️

 

[Cyched]

Not only did his defenses help Campbell win, it helped give ISU a bit of an identity during that time.

Enjoy your well-earned retirement Coach.

 

[KennyPratt42]

At least for me, I’m going to think about the last 10 years as the Heacock era of Iowa St football.

 

[MTCyclone43]

Defensive Coordinator Jon Heacock is going to ride off as a Cyclone Legend as he retires from coaching. Best wishes and God Bless Coach Heacock, I will always be thankful that you were a true Cyclone!!! We were fortunate have you as our Defensive Coordinator.

 

[ruxCYtable]

Greatest non-head coach in ISU history?

 

[cyfan92]

No mention of Campbell in his farewell note seems telling as well.

Thanks for everything, Coach

I have on good authority that Heacock wanted to coach the bowl game as his final send-off

 

[CloniesForLife]

I have on good authority that Heacock wanted to coach the bowl game as his final send-off

That would've been perfect. Sad for him that wasn't able to happen

 

[Koala]

I was always worried about what a Campbell coached team without a reliable defense would look like. Even after the relative struggles of the last two years I thought anyone saying he should go needed to be careful what they wished for.

 

[CyBlitz]

Greatest non-head coach in ISU history?

Honestly who else is even competion? Maybe rasheed?

 

[jbhtexas]

Below is a little graph I made of ISU's Big 12 scoring offense and scoring defense rankings for the last 10 seasons. It's normalized because the number of conference teams changed over that time. 100 is the best, 0 is the worst. The X axis is year, with the number of teams in the conference in parenthesis. Taking out the first rebuilding season. Heacock had ISU at/near the top of the conference for 9 straight years. Amazing.

Congrats Coach Heacock on a very successful career!