Jeremy Reeves cannot help but lament Iowa State’s last conference game against Texas A&M.

The junior cornerback said Wednesday he has three high school teammates on the roster for No. 17 Texas A&M (4-2, 2-1 Big 12), which will travel to Ames to face Iowa State (3-3, 0-3) on Saturday in its last game as a member of the Big 12 during the Cyclones’ 99th Homecoming.

“It’s going to be crazy,” Reeves said. “The Big 12 is a fun conference to play in, but they chose to go to someplace else. That’s something that we can’t control. But to play against them is going to be great.”

A&M will be moving to the Southeastern Conference next year, effective July 2012.

Despite its recent struggles through a three-game losing skid, Iowa State is out to make its last matchup against A&M a memorable one.

“They’ve got explosive players and tough, hard-nosed players, but we’ve got the same,” said defensive end Jacob Lattimer. “We might not have as many professional prospects, but we are going to work as hard as we can and we pride ourselves on that.”

The Aggies lead the Big 12 in run defense, allowing just 72.3 rushing yards per game and seven touchdowns in six games. This does not bode well for an ISU offense that is dead last in the Big 12 in run offense with 150.5 rushing yards per game and has only had a 100-yard rusher in two games this season.

However, facing a team in Texas A&M that has accumulated the most sacks among FBS schools (26) through tireless blitzing packages opens up the opportunity for making big plays.

“If you can protect and give [the quarterback] time, somebody’s going to have an opportunity to come free,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads. “There’s been tons of occasions over the year where pressure is brought and guys are wide open, but you never get to them because of the pressure.

“So if you can locate and deliver, then you have an opportunity for big plays.”

On offense, A&M comes into the game averaging 227.7 rushing yards per game with running backs Christine Michael and Cyrus Gray combining for over 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns.

“They have a tough running game,” Lattimer said. “They have a pretty decently powerful back and the last backs we played, they were pretty good as well. But I think [Gray], he will probably be one of the best backs we’ve seen so far.”

For Iowa State, the situation of which quarterback will start between Steele Jantz and Jared Barnett is still up in the air, Rhoads said Wednesday.

“There’s been more reps for Jared, more overall and he’s been taking reps with the one’s — both of them have been,” Rhoads said of the dueling quarterbacks. “I’ll base [the decision] more on film at the end of the day and get a good, thorough look at everything.”

Barnett was put into the fourth quarter of Iowa State’s 52-17 loss to Missouri last Saturday in Columbia, Mo., after Jantz’s lackadaisical performance of completing 17-of-32 of his passes for 161 yards and no touchdowns.

Despite completing less than half of his passes and throwing an interception, Barnett successfully led the ISU offense down the field for the only offensive touchdown of the game — a 13-yard run by running back Jeff Woody.

“The Missouri game was a debacle,” Rhoads said. “A game like that, you want to put it behind you fast.”

Jantz has started all six games at quarterback this season for the Cyclones.

Iowa State will kick off against No. 17 Texas A&M on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ABC throughout the state of Iowa.

“Texas out-played us, Baylor out-played us, all three of those are good football teams,” Rhoads said. “The schedule isn’t going to get any easier, in fact, it’s going to get increasingly harder as we go through if you base that on the rankings.

“We’ve got to have a great focus, what I refer to as a ‘hard focus,’ on every day’s assignments and this particular plan and Saturday’s game against Texas A&M.”