After giving up 405 yards on the ground in a loss to Oklahoma, Iowa State will be challenged again in its home finale this season.

When Kansas comes to Ames for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Nov. 23, it will be bringing a potent rushing attack. KU running back James Sims led the way for the Jayhawks on the ground in a 31-19 win against West Virginia with 211 yards on 22 carries for three touchdowns.

“Sims is a good player. We’ve always felt that,” said ISU head coach Paul Rhoads. “Seeing him have such an explosive week before is not encouraging, not exciting to us. I’ll throw in the quarterback who I saw first on television earlier in the year when they started giving him some snaps. I said, ‘Oh boy, that guy just needs some time and he’s really going to add to their offense.’ And he’s getting to that point right now.”

Starting KU quarterback Jake Heaps was benched against West Virginia in favor of freshman Montell Cozart. The Jayhawks switch quarterbacks, who have different strengths.

Free safety Jacques Washington said the defense will have to be ready to see both.

“They do two quarterbacks and switch out a quarterback and put one in who is more of a runner,” Washington said. “So we’ve got to stop the run, we say that every week, but we really have to this week.”

Cozart was 5-of-12 for 61 yards passing against the Mountaineers, but also rushed 13 times for 60 yards. 

It was statistically his best game, throwing and running the ball as the Jayhawks won their first Big 12 game in 28 tries, and the first for second-year coach Charlie Weis.

What helped Kansas have success against West Virginia and what has kept them competitive in most games this season, in ISU defensive coordinator Wally Burnham’s mind, is the Jayhawks’ ability to have “a new offense every week.”

“You go back to the first game, and they do some things consistently, but you go back last week and they ran a different offense than they have all year,” Burnham said. “You go back the game before that against Oklahoma State, a different offense. So you prepare for what they run most and then you’ve got to adjust.”

A nagging problem for the ISU defense this season has been the inability to play defense in the gaps consistently, allowing opponents to run through the defense and put up gaudy numbers. 

It’s something that linebacker Jeremiah George doesn’t want to see happen this week, so he knows that a 60-minute effort is what Iowa State will have to give.

“[Sims is] going to get his touches and we’re going to have to do our best to slow him down and play gap-control defense,” George said. “They’re a football team where people look at them and they look at their record and they don’t really watch them play. I have the opportunity to watch them and I see a lot of great things.”