“What the heck is this?”
On Monday, Texas Longhorns head coach Tom Herman reflected on his reaction to the unusual defensive front and coverages that the Iowa State Cyclones used against the Longhorns in Ames last season.
The Texas staff had studied two years of film on Iowa State, but hadn’t ever seen the type of defense deployed by Jon Heacock on that Thursday evening. After the ‘Horns were held to 17 points in the road victory, defensive coordinator Todd Orlando went back to identify what exactly Heacock was doing.
And that birthed the Lightning package that Texas unveiled shortly thereafter, which quickly became the team’s base defense and helped limit opposing offenses for the rest of the season.