With a two-game losing skid on the books and an old rival waiting, the ISU football team is charged with fixing the problems that have plagued it in losses to No. 22 Texas and No. 20 Baylor.

The Cyclones (3-2, 0-2 Big 12) will be vying for a rebound when they travel to Columbia, Mo., to take on Missouri in its homecoming game at Faurot Field on Saturday at 1 p.m.

“We’ve got to be physical, we’ve got to be helmet-to-helmet,” said ISU safety Ter’Ran Benton. “They’re a good blocking team, they get under your chin. It’s going to be mostly a head-on game and the most-physical team is going to win it.”

At stake in this rivalry game is the Telephone Trophy, which Iowa State has not won since 2006 when the Cyclones pulled off a 21-16 victory in Ames. Missouri leads the all-time series 31-18-3.

Missouri has been flirting with the notion of leaving the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference along with Texas A&M, which is officially leaving for the SEC in July 2012. However, the SEC has said it has no interest in expanding to 14 teams for next season, leaving Missouri in the Big 12 for at least one more year.

“There’s really no effect on 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads of the chance that this might be the last time the rivalry game will be played. “I’ve got family from there, I went to school down there, I enjoy this game and any time that you’re playing for a trophy, it should be of high importance.”

The Tigers (2-3, 0-2) began the season ranked No. 21 in the AP Top 25 poll, but dropped after an overtime loss to Arizona State on Sept. 9 and are also entering the game coming off consecutive losses to Oklahoma and Kansas State.

James Franklin has taken the reins as quarterback in a system that has produced NFL quarterbacks in Chase Daniel and Blaine Gabbert, accumulating 1,199 passing yards and seven touchdowns with 7.45 yards per attempt.

“He’s just as calm and poised back there as can be,” Rhoads said of Franklin’s presence in the pocket. “You rarely get a hit on him, you rarely get pressure on him. He stays back there, he stands tall when he has to run and he will run you over.”

Franklin’s most prolific target this season has been receiver T.J. Moe, who leads the team in receptions with 26 for 317 yards in five games this season.

“He’s a good player especially last year, he gave us a headache,” Benton said. “He’s just an athlete that we’re going to have to watch more film on. From here on out, we’ve got to watch these receivers because they’re getting better and better each game.”

Another focal point for the defense is All-American tight end Michael Egnew, who caught seven passes for 77 yards and one touchdown in the Tigers’ 14-0 victory against the Cyclones in Ames last season.

The 6-foot-6-inch, 245-pound Egnew creates problems for both the run and pass defenses as a versatile blocker and physical target up the middle.

“I think he’s a complete tight end,” said defensive coordinator Wally Burnham. “He can catch the ball, he can get vertical and make some moves on you and shake some linebackers out of position. They use him a lot for motion and bring him over and try to get him on a DB on some of those run plays they got.”

Egnew’s run blocking has partly been responsible for the Tigers’ running attack that comes into Saturday’s game averaging 225 yards per game, which ranks 14th in the nation.

“They’re still basically a throwing football team, that’s what they like to do if they had their way about it,” Burnham said. “But they use the pass to set up the run and it kind of keeps you off balance a little bit and you have to make some special checks and things like that.”

For Iowa State, Rhoads confirmed Wednesday that sophomore Shontrelle Johnson will be out due to a “stinger” he received in the Cyclones’ 37-14 loss to Texas on Oct. 1.

Johnson’s absence last Saturday against Baylor gave James White the nod to start at running back for the Cyclones, in which he rushed for 148 yards and one touchdown — a career-high 76-yarder — while averaging 9.2 yards per carry in the 49-26 loss.

When asked about his preference of running between the tackles or running in open space, White opted for the former.

“I like to pick and choose where I like to run,” White said. “That [76-yard touchdown run], it was pretty much a zone read. As I was going through the crease, I [saw] that I could have bounced it out. It’s dependent on me just reading it out.”

The game, which will start at 1 p.m. Saturday at Faurot Field in Columbia, Mo., will be the ISU seniors’ last chance at beating Missouri as Cyclones.

“I’m 0-3 against them,” Benton said. “It’s my senior year and it’s just like the Iowa game — I want to win this game as much [I did against] Iowa. So it’s not that they’ll out-coach us at all, we’ve just got to be more athletic.

“They always say that Iowa State is the less-athletic team in the Big 12. We’ve just got to prove them wrong.”