Being a defensive coach in the Big 12 is one of the most thankless jobs in football. Week after week, opposing offenses bombard their units with Air Raid and Power-Spread derivatives, lining up receivers from sideline to sideline and lighting up scoreboards in the process.
It's been nearly a decade and a half since Vince Young raised a crystal football above the crowd inside the Rose Bowl and no other team from the great plains has yet to follow suit and bring a national title to the Big 12. Despite the conference's early adoption of the wide-open offenses that now dominate the game, the league has earned a reputation for treating defense as a mere formality.