One hundred years in the making, a win for the ISU football team on Saturday would be cause for celebration.

To mark Iowa State’s 100th Homecoming, the Cyclones (4-3, 1-3 Big 12) will host Baylor at 6 p.m. Saturday night.

The Bears (3-3, 0-3) come to Jack Trice Stadium with quarterback Nick Florence, who leads the nation in total individual yardage with 407.17 per game.

“They throw things on time,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads of the Florence-led Baylor offense. “They do a nice job with play-action to help set that up, which was something that gave us fits this past Saturday.”

Rhoads, whose team defeated Baylor for Homecoming 2009 during his first season as the ISU coach, has refused to speak about his own quarterback situation after miscues from Jared Barnett in the team’s loss to Oklahoma State on Oct. 20 left questions as to who would take the reins in the future.

Barnett and fellow quarterbacks Steele Jantz and Sam Richardson were unavailable to the media throughout the week at Rhoads’ request on Sunday night.

The offensive attack of Baylor provides tough task for an ISU defense that has allowed an average of 459.75 total yards in four Big 12 games so far this season.

Baylor’s defense, however, is a polar opposite statistically. Through three conference games this season, the Bears have been outscored 175-134 while giving up 58.3 points per game.

But offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham said the first objective for his unit is to focus on execution first before vying to exploit the defense’s weaknesses.

“It’s got to be twofold — you’ve got to get yourself better. That’s the first thing you’ve always got to look at, and then, secondly, stay on the field by moving the football both run and pass,” Messingham said. “If you look at Baylor, they’ve given up running yards, and they’ve given up passing yards, and they’ve allowed people to get in the end zone.”

The past few games, the offensive line has had its share of struggles in trying to protect the quarterback and making bigger holes for the running game.

This focus, quite simply, is to fix the little things.

“It’s a matter of moving your foot two more inches on the first step, get better angles, not taking that false step, proper hand placement on the punch, head placement on a combo block — stuff like that,” said left tackle Carter Bykowski.

The game is set to kick-off at 6 p.m. and will be broadcasted on FSN. Follow along at iowastatedaily.net for a live chat hosted by The Des Moines Register.