As many ISU football fans know, teams in the Big 12 Conference like to throw the ball.

And those fans also may have seen the Cyclones struggle defending against that strategy last season, finishing with a less-than-stellar passing defense that ranked 123rd in the NCAA in passing yards per play and 122nd in overall passing yards allowed. 

A year later, after implementing a new scheme and adding an influx of talent, the Cyclones rank in the top 25 in the nation in both of the aforementioned statistics after three games this season. 

Iowa State’s Big 12 opener this weekend against Kansas, a team that focuses on throwing the ball, gives the Cyclones an interesting precursor for the more productive Big 12 offensive teams like TCU and Baylor.  

“The Big 12 is wide open, and we all know you have to defend the width as well as the length of the field,” said ISU football coach Paul Rhoads. “The preparation that goes into that … is certainly one that is challenging.” 

Although Kansas ranks in the bottom half of the NCAA in passing yards per game, it still ranks in the top half in passing yards per play. 

A rough passing game in the loss to Rutgers last weekend didn’t help the Jayhawks either. Even though they struggled to get anything going, the Jayhawks still had a 54.69 percent passing play rate, according to teamrankings.com.

Iowa State implemented the new 3-4 defense this season, focusing on limiting big plays through the air — a weakness for the defense in 2014. 

“[Protecting the pass] is exactly why we switched,” said ISU defensive coordinator Wally Burnham. “We can send four, we can send five in this without switching any personnel.”

So far the switch has worked against non-conference opponents with the defense ranking 39th in the nation, allowing 6.1 passing yards per attempt. 

But Iowa State’s last two opponents didn’t focus on passing the ball at an effective pace. Iowa ranks 84th in the NCAA, throwing the ball 44.02 percent of the time. Toledo throws the ball 53.15 percent of the time but ranks 98th in the NCAA in passing yards gained. 

Kansas will be the first real test for the new defense and provide an environment where Iowa State can experiment. 

“We’ve got some stuff ready for tempo,” Burnham said. “We’re going to try to defend the ball deep because that’s what they’ve done, but everyone always [adds] a new wrinkle for each game. … But we feel like we are going to be ready.”

Iowa State will play Texas Tech on the road after Kansas and the pass-heavy offenses of TCU and Baylor back to back, making Kansas a good test to gauge the rest of the season. 

“Yeah, this will help. We haven’t had many teams throw well on us,” said linebacker and captain Levi Peters. “You know Big 12 play, you know how it is.”