Jacksonville State can’t catch a break.

Last Saturday at Jacksonville, Ala., Will Hall of Division II North Alabama torched the Division I-AA Gamecocks for 295 passing yards.

Hall, it should be mentioned, ranks fourth in the nation among D-II quarterbacks with a 176.9 rating.

Things won’t be any easier tonight at Memorial Stadium against Kansas quarterback Bill Whittemore.

“We’re going to be playing a Kansas football team at Kansas that’s got the No. 2 pass-efficiency quarterback in America,” Jack Crowe said. “We are going to have all we want in terms of challenges. It ought to bring out the best in us.”

Whittemore, whose 180.9 quarterback rating is second in Division I, knows about small-college football. The Brentwood, Tenn., native started his career at Tennessee-Martin before transferring to Fort Scott Community College and later to KU.

“The lines between Division II and I-AA and Division IA are vague at best,” said Crowe, a former Arkansas head coach.

JSU saw a smaller school rise up and stun a larger-class school last week, but do the Gamecocks have any chance of pulling the same maneuver on the Jayhawks?

Jax State has played eight Division I opponents since moving to Division I-AA in 1994 and is 3-5 in those games with victories against Northeast Louisiana, Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State.

Still, Crowe seemed realistic about his team’s chances of stunning a Big 12 Conference school on the road.

“I wish we didn’t have a momentum problem right now and the momentum problem that this is quite honestly going to create for coming back and playing against Eastern Kentucky,” he said of next week’s Ohio Valley Conference opener. “We’re just going to have to deal with that. I think playing a good football team like Kansas — and I think they are a good football team — they’re not the Kansas football team people saw last year … I think it will make us better.”

The Gamecocks need to get better on offense after averaging 12.5 points per game through two games.

Sophomore quarterback Maurice Mullins won the starting job from junior Anthony Mayo — who started seven games last season — during the preseason, but Mayo will be back under center tonight.

Mayo replaced Mullins in the fourth quarter last Saturday and led the Gamecocks on a scoring drive that pulled JSU within 21-16.

“I was probably a series late getting Anthony into the game,” Crowe said. “Anthony is more experienced. He brought a better rhythm to the team. We moved the ball and scored fairly quickly with him in there. Unfortunately we didn’t get the opportunity to finish them off because we couldn’t get them off the field at the end.”

The quarterbacks’ numbers aren’t vastly different. Mullins (6-foot, 187 pounds) completed 16-of-33 passes for 203 yards with one touchdown and one interception through two games, while Mayo (6-1, 213) was 10-of-19 for 95 yards and one interception.

Crowe said he hasn’t given up on Mullins, who also was expected to play tonight.

“We have a lot of high expectations for our young quarterback, and as we start moving toward league play Maurice is going to be important to us,” he said.

But the Gamecocks clearly need a jump-start. JSU is averaging a modest 325.5 yards per game and has converted only 9-of-30 third-down plays. Ten of Jacksonville State’s 16 points against UNA were set up by turnovers.

The loss to North Alabama at home was humbling.

“If we don’t get this wakeup call,” Crowe said, “there won’t be a need for another one.”