Is the Big 12 starting to play defense?
College football fans and NFL boycotters tuned in to watch some Big 12 football Thursday night. But a Big Ten game broke out at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa.
Texas beat Iowa State 17-7. The teams combined for 568 total yards and 37 first downs, which is about one team’s total in a typical Big 12 game.
“Obviously, the defensive performance was phenomenal,” said Texas coach Tom Herman. “To hold a team to 10 yards on the ground and get the turnovers and fourth down stops that we did in their stadium is pretty impressive.”
It’s early in the year, but maybe the Big 12 is playing some better defense. Texas held Southern Cal to 17 points in regulation. OU held Ohio State to 16 points. TCU held Arkansas to seven points and Oklahoma State to 31. Even beleaguered Texas Tech held Houston to 10 points until the final five minutes of the game.
Iowa State coach Matt Campbell can vouch for the Longhorns. “They’re really good on defense,” Campbell said. “They brought a lot of pressure in the first half of the game, and had more guys on the line of scrimmage than there were blockers, it can put you in a tough situation.”
Texas opened the season with a 51-41 loss to Maryland. But even that game was hardly the Longhorn defense’s fault. The Terrapins had just two touchdown drives longer than 52 yards. Maryland’s total yards, 482, were hardly the stuff of scoring 51 points.
“They learned a very costly but valuable lesson in that Maryland game,” Herman said. “You can’t play great defense if you’re evaluating and you’re thinking and you’re gauging or tiptoeing. You have to stick your foot in the ground and go and trust that the other 10 guys are going to be there right behind you. Our defense for the last three weeks has been doing that.”
Now we find out if Texas’ — and the rest of the Big 12’s — defense can hold up consistently against Big 12 offenses.