Why are Big 12 defenses uniformly terrible?

Because almost all the offenses spread the field?

And when you don't have a truly dominant D-line to get to the QB...that's a nightmare for the back 7 to cover all that space.

Hell, LSU had a great D last year and look at the yards the passing spread WV put up against them.

By and large, Big12 D's have more to worry about/cover.

If the whole conference runs the spread, shouldn't defenses be used to looking at it during practice?

Maybe it is due to the talent/coaching gap. It's one thing to have an occasional bust in coverage. It's another thing to assume a winning gameplan is soft zones and arm tackling like middle-aged women.

it's a combo of things

1. they do have some really good offenses

2. their Ds are based in getting turnovers due to the offenses they face

Poor coaching is part of it

Baylor just dropped 8 into coverage and let a WR get behind everyone on the defense on 3rd and 12

That's the type of idiocy you'd get pissed at a high school team for doing.

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Only thing I can figure is in that part of the country the better athletes want to play offense whereas in SEC country you have just as many good athletes on D as you do on O.

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this is part of it, more and more Texas HS's are running some form of spread offense and that's where the bulk of the Big 12 teams recruit. However, UT is trying to go more to SEC style D and run, don't be surprised if more teams in the Big 12 follow suit.