Without a doubt, the biggest reason for Iowa State’s ascension to the upper echelon of the Big 12 over the last few seasons has been the transformation of the defense from a pile of Swiss cheese that was more holes than cheese, to an absolute force capable of not only slowing down (or almost completely stopping in the case of West Virginia) some of the best offenses in the country, but stacking up with some of the best defenses in the country not named Alabama or Clemson.
We Cyclone fans have been waiting for a unit like this for a long time.