There’s no such thing as a pushover in the Big 12. 

The ISU football team will begin watching tape on a lesser caliber Kansas this week. Linebacker Jeremiah George said this game won’t be a walk in the park.

“People that don’t know the game of football very well might say they aren’t a very good team because of what their record says,” George said. “But when you turn on the film and you see they’re one of the most dominant run teams in our conference, you have to prepare for that.”

George preaches the truth.

In late October, the Jayhawks took Texas — now ranked No. 18 in the nation — down to the wire and lost by a touchdown that was scored in the last couple seconds. 

“They’re very inconsistent but they’re very, very close to putting that great defensive effort against Texas and the great offensive effort against [Texas] Tech and just exploding,” said running back Jeff Woody.

If on Nov. 17 the Jayhawks do put together an “exploding effort” such as the one Woody described, ISU quarterback Steele Jantz will have to lead a similar charge. 

The woes of Jantz still loom amongst the team. Although he was able to put up a five-touchdown performance against a plagued Baylor defense, Jantz has given the ball away four times in the past three games.

Center Tom Farniok said Jantz keeps the linemen on their toes, for better or worse.

“Say it’s a play where it’s a naked rollout; those are the easiest ones to pass [protect] for [because] he is going out and they’re supposed to be fast throws,” Farniok said.

On designed plays where Jantz scrambles, Farniok said it’s difficult to give up a sack as an offensive lineman. 

However, on plays where Jantz isn’t designed to scramble but does, it becomes a whole new ballgame. 

“If he holds it for four seconds and then scrambles, that comes with the territory of good pass coverage,” Farniok said. “But if he jumps out because someone gets deep, it makes things really questionable.”

In seven games started this season, Jantz has thrown 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, just one interception shy of what his opponents have thrown combined this season.

Although Farniok said scrambling can be traitorous to the offense, Jantz’s movement away from the pocket has proved somewhat effective.

In the games in which Jantz has seen action, he has kept the ball to himself 87 times for a net gain of 327 yards. However, Jantz has lost 121 yards; more than half of the team’s total lost yards.

Farniok said for the game against Kansas, despite the scrambling attempts, the offensive line won’t do anything different.

“We’re not going to run anything different than normal,” Farniok said. “We run our offense. It’s just little things and little tweaks on how we block things that are going to be different in the game.”