Iowa State’s ‘perfectionism’ on defense fuels 31-14 win over West Virginia

AMES — Perfectionism can be the enemy of improvement.

But not for Iowa State defensive coordinator Jon Heacock. The Cyclones’ veteran assistant coach has imbued his team with a desire to nitpick, to find and fix flaws, whatever the stats — or the win-loss record — may say.

“He puts that on us where we become perfectionists,” ISU linebacker Colby Reader said. “So even if we’re playing really good, there’s always critiques. We want to hold (opponents) to zero every day and if we don’t, we’re not satisfied.”

Take Saturday’s 31-14 win over West Virginia (3-6, 1-5) that gave the Cyclones (4-5, 1-5) their first Big 12 victory of the season.

ISU led 10-0 late in the first half until the defense allowed a handful of big plays that culminated in Mountaineers quarterback J.T. Daniels’ 25-yard touchdown pass to Bryce Ford-Wheaton. Suddenly, the chance to create and expand daylight on the scoreboard vanished and the game remained tense until the Cyclones’ offense exploded for 21 consecutive points in the fourth quarter to take a 31-7 lead.

“We definitely took a step in the right direction but we didn’t close the door,” said ISU senior safety Anthony Johnson, who notched his second career interception. “We gave up 14 points and one’s before the half and one of them’s the two-minute drill (at the end), and that’s not how we play defense here. (It’s) stuff that we’ve got to correct and we’ll get it corrected moving forward.”

Heacock has frequently said his unit’s played “good” football, but not yet “great.” As Reeder and Johnson both noted, the Cyclones inched a step closer to the latter on Saturday against a West Virginia team that averaged 34.4 points over its first eight games.

“Sometimes you take it for granted just how well they’re playing,” ISU head coach Matt Campbell said. “When you look at that defense, you look at Will McDonald, Isaiah Lee. You look at what M.J. Anderson has grown to do in our football program and then you look at Gerry Vaughn, O’Rien Vance and obviously getting Reeder back (from injury) is huge for us. I think that guy has played great football for this team. … And then you look at Anthony Johnson and what Beau (Freyler) have done, what T.J. (Tampa) and what Myles (Purchase) continue to do. Those guys are playing great football.”

Heacock may beg to differ — but that’s why ISU’s consistently been a top-three defense in the Big 12 over the past five-plus seasons.

The Cyclones entered Saturday’s game tied for seventh nationally with Alabama in scoring defense at 16.6 points per game. They lead the conference in all major categories — scoring, total, rushing and passing defense — but leading doesn’t equate to perfection. So cue the nitpicking once again, though this time it will come after a win, not five straight losses.

“This definitely helps,” Reeder said. “Gives us a little bit of satisfaction that the hard work’s paying off and hopefully we just keep it rolling. Do what we did today hopefully next week (at Oklahoma State).”

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