Midway through the second quarter of the 2015 Class 6A Division II State Championship, Lake Travis quarterback Charlie Brewer threw an interception directly into the chest of Katy defensive lineman Michael Matus, who ran it back for a touchdown. To the naked eye, it was a panic throw uncharacteristic of a signal caller with just three interceptions all season. The story behind it, however, shows why many TXHSFB pundits believe the 2015 Katy Tigers defense is the best of all time.

Lake Travis sent the running back in motion to the right before faking a bubble screen to him. The H-back, offset the line of scrimmage, jabbed right like he was swing-blocking and then cut left across the formation for a tunnel screen. Lake Travis scored two touchdowns on that play in the second round of the playoffs against Westfield.

Most defenses were fooled. Not Katy. The Tigers’ defense knew that play was set up every time the tight end jabbed right and cut left across the line of scrimmage. That’s why Matus stood directly in the throwing lane to intercept it while safety Colin Wilder simultaneously tackled the tight end as soon as the ball would’ve arrived. In the lead-up to the state championship, they’d watched Lake Travis’s entire season on film. Twice.

“If you did a documentary on our team back in the day, it was honestly absurd how much film we watched,” said Travis Whillock, a senior safety on that 2015 team.

The players called it ‘Brown Bagging.’ They’d watch film before school started, then skip lunch in the cafeteria, instead bringing a sack lunch to the film room to eat while they scouted. Then, they’d watch more before afternoon practice. That preparation made it so the games were easier than practice. The defense allowed 62 points in 16 games, pitching 10 shutouts. Eight of the 11 starters played Division I college football.

“The 2015 defense is the best one I’ve ever seen, by far,” longtime Katy Cinco Ranch head coach Don Clayton said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, do y’all know our plays?’ That’s how quickly they read things.”

The players took on the habits of their head coach, Gary Joseph, who’s been with the program since 1982. He’s a defensive tactician with his famed 3-4 ‘Weak Eagle’ scheme, but his most elite coaching trait is his unwavering sense of urgency, and it’s only increased over four decades. Practice starts at 3:12 p.m., not 3:10 or 3:15 p.m. Individual drills last 13 minutes, not 10 or 15. Every minute of every practice is planned for, controlled.

“Your workouts that you’re doing in the middle of January, in his mind, were truly going to make or break us winning the state championship,” said Matt McDaniel, the 2015 team’s defensive coordinator.

Joseph’s game preparation borders on paranoia. His team could be 9-0 playing a winless team, and he’ll have younger assistants convinced the Tigers will suffer an embarrassing loss because of a matchup problem he spotted on film.

“He can watch a play where you get immediate pressure on the quarterback and you hit him as he throws and you intercept it and you set up a great return and you run it back for a touchdown,” McDaniel said. “And he can list 10 things from that play we need to work on.”

He’s the eternal pessimist with the headset, which is what makes his teams so great. On the second day of two-a-day practices in 2015, Joseph stormed into the coaches’ office and told his assistants this was the worst defense he’d seen since 1986. He didn’t like the way the defensive line was stepping off the ball. He was nervous about having a sophomore and junior on the unit. Katy didn’t even have pads on in practice yet.

It turned into the best defensive unit of all time, and that sophomore was the one who had the pick-six.

Joseph has built a dynasty that hasn’t had a losing season since 1990. That success has created an increasing pressure to uphold the standard with each passing year. Somewhere along the journey to the top, the main goal for each team became about not being the group to let it down.

“As a coach, we always used to joke that there is no joy in Tiger Land,” McDaniel said. “You win that last game in December, it was always more like a sigh of relief that we didn’t screw it up more so than we won state.”

Joseph remembers more about the games he’s lost than won. Maybe that’s because he’s won 266 times and lost only 28. But maintaining that record isn’t what motivates him; it’s giving the next group of kids the same opportunity that the last generations got. He cannot rest if he knows there’s one more thing he could’ve done to give his team the best chance to win possible.

“You don’t ever want your kids not to succeed because you failed them,” Joseph said. “I’m not afraid of failing, but I don’t want to see our kids fail.”