From the outside, it may seem like Iowa State has a number of holes on the defensive side of the ball.

The Cyclones have a quarterback playing linebacker and they have almost an entirely new defensive line outside of J.D. Waggoner and Vernell Trent.

Really, the only proven talent on the defensive side of the ball is the defensive backs.

But Matt Campbell, his staff and the players are high on what the defense will be able to do this season. The normally soft-spoken Kamari Cotton-Moya, a senior leader at free safety, had big praise for the defensive line and linebackers.

“I think this is the best front seven we’ve had in 10 years at Iowa State. And I’m not kidding,” Cotton-Moya said. “If we keep believing in the process and keep believing in each other and believe in the coaches and believing in the hard work — the sky’s the limit for us.”

Defensive coordinator Jon Heacock said the defense starts outside with the cornerbacks. Iowa State has a wealth of experience outside with guys like Brian Peavy, D’Andre Payne, Evrett Edwards and De’Monte Ruth.

Put that along side a few young guys like Arnold Azunna and Heacock will have options to work with.

“There’s some great experienced pieces back there,” Heacock said. “We as coaches, in the next month or so, we’ve got to put them in spots that help us the most, and we’ll do that. It’s fun having older guys that have been in a football game that understand what you’re talking about.”

In the case of the defensive line and linebackers, where youth and Division I inexperience playing that position reign supreme, Waggoner’s responsibilities fall beyond just taking care of himself and his assignments. As a senior, the leadership aspect is “enormous.”

“This is my fifth year, and I feel like I’ve been here 10 with all the sporadic changes with coaching staffs,” Waggoner said. “It’s important to be a leader to the younger guys in case we get into scenarios in the game where we face some adversity we don’t like. It’s important to know that I’ve been in those situations before and calm them down to be able to keep our composure and work through those kinds of situations.”

The responsibility of making sure the younger players keep their composure won’t just fall on him and the other senior leaders on the field. For the first time in years, Iowa State retained every one of its coaches.

“A year in the system helps the players,” Heacock said. “When you’re communicating with your guys, they have a feeling of what you’re talking about. They’re not lost. We as coaches have a better feel of who we’re playing against, [and] what we need to have when we play those teams down the road to get us into November and have success.”

And Waggoner believes Iowa State will have success.

“We’re going to win every single game that we can,” Waggoner said. “We’re going to give maximum effort we can, and at the end of the day, if we give our very, very best effort and do exactly what we’re supposed to do then I think we’ll be happy with our results.”