Coming back from a weekend where I didn’t have to watch our secondary get burned to a crisp was a breath of fresh air, and with that, a new mentality. That mentality is Heacock fixed all our problems, our defense will become a Top 5 defense by the end of the season, and I can stop screaming at my TV as I see a football get thrown past a 10-yard distance. So enough mental health check on the Cyclone Faithful, and let’s talk about defense, defense, DEFENSE!
Iowa State
BYU’s current threat on offense is their run
game, which can then lead to Chase Roberts getting open in the pass. With as physical as BYU is on the offensive line, and having a quarterback that runs more than he passes, we are going to focus on our run game, and more importantly, the player that needs to have the team rally around him to make big tackles and not let this silly little Bear run all over us. We, of course, are talking about the walk-on to absolute Iowa Pork Producers NIL legend, Caleb Bacon.
Who doesn’t like Bacon? More than likely, heathens, or teams where Caleb feasts on them. Caleb is currently second on the team with 38 total tackles, four for loss, and one pass deflection. He has been an anchor in the linebacker room along with Kooper Ebel and Carson Willich. With a very mobile quarterback, he will need to make sure that he can watch the play develop and keep Bear Bachmeier in check and take him down or hold on long enough for help to arrive.
Yes, this was Arkansas State, but the point still stands. Caleb is a force to be reckoned with, and if you think that your average running back or wide receiver is going to stop him from trying to blow up a play, you’re wrong. There’s a reason he has gone from a walk-on who played only special teams to a starter during his time in a Cyclone jersey.
BYU
This one is tricky since I believe there are two players to watch for this upcoming game, and fortunately (or unfortunately), they both play linebacker. So let’s just go ahead and dive right into the two-headed monster together and look at Jack Kelly and Isiah Glasker.
This season, Kelly and Glasker have combined for 59 tackles, 14 for a loss, two interceptions, one pass deflection, and two forced fumbles. They are the heart of that defensive front seven, and are big bodies that also have high levels of play recognition.
The list of achievements that these two have is so long that I would probably need a third article just to go through all of it, but the summary report is this – they are both really good at football, and if you don’t see them playing on Sunday, it’s because they decided they would rather not play at the next level, or some crazy scandal hit the news worse than Retzlaff.
