Kansas University’s defense will face another highly-touted quarterback today when the Jayhawks meet Northwestern and Brett Basanez at Evanston, Ill.

“This is our third really good quarterback we’re going up against,” said KU coach Mark Mangino, whose team has defeated Tulsa’s James Kilian and Toledo’s Bruce Gradkowski in back-to-back weeks.

“Early in the year that puts a strain on your defense, but our defense has met the challenge so far and I think they will continue to.”

The Jayhawks might even be thriving on it.

“I love that, hearing about a good quarterback,” KU cornerback Theo Baines said. “That hypes us up back in the secondary.”

Basanez passed for 1,916 yards and four touchdowns as a sophomore. He already has thrown for 741 yards and four TDs in two games, including a 513-yard, four-touchdown performance in a 48-45 double-overtime loss at Texas Christian in the season opener.

“Basanez is an outstanding quarterback, another good quarterback,” Mangino said. “This will be three weeks in a row we’re playing against a top-notch quarterback. He has a quick release, strong arm. He’s got a lot of games under his belt and understands their offensive schemes very well. He’s a very intelligent guy.”

Northwestern coach Randy Walker was convinced his team relied too much on Basanez (6-foot-2, 210 pounds) in the TCU loss when the junior threw 62 passes. The Wildcats had a modest 124 yards rushing.

NU had better balance last week in its home opener when Basanez passed for 228 yards, and senior Noah Herron rushed for 105.

The result was the same, a 30-21 loss to Arizona State.

“We really felt like we needed to get our running game going,” Walker said. “We got in a shootout at TCU. We threw for over 500 yards. I don’t want to say we abandoned the running game, but they really took it away from us, and we felt like we had to throw the football a great deal. It was good to get back our running back.”

Herron (5-11, 230) has rushed for 199 yards and three touchdowns in two games, while junior backup Terrell Jordan (5-10, 200) has 80 yards and a TD.

The Jayhawks will be prepared for plenty of passing. Basanez leads the Big Ten in passing with an average of 370.5 yards per game, and junior receiver Mark Philmore (5-10, 185) leads the league with an average of nine catches per game. Philmore has 18 catches for 222 yards, while junior Jonathan Fields (5-8, 175) has 13 for 234 and three TDs.

Northwestern enters the game 0-2, but the Wildcats have bigger, more experienced linemen on both sides of the ball than Toledo or Tulsa — teams KU steamrolled in its first two games.

“Northwestern’s line has big, physical guys that play hardnosed football,” Kansas guard David Ochoa said. “I think they’re going to be the most physical line we’ve played so far. This will be our toughest test.”

KU plays another pass-first team next week when the Jayhawks play host to Texas Tech at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Tech quarterback Sonny Cumbie leads the nation with an average of 459.5 yards per game.