photo by: Jesus Portillo/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas defenders celebrate after a stop against Arizona on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Tucson, Ariz.

Kansas coach Lance Leipold has frequently spoken in the past about how his first trip to Iowa State in 2021 — one during which the Cyclones destroyed the Jayhawks 59-7 — demonstrated to Leipold that KU had a lot of work to do to compete in the Big 12.

Whatever Leipold learned from that memorable visit, he’s employed it to great effect in the years since, especially against ISU. The Jayhawks have won each of their last three games against the Cyclones — 14-11 in 2022 in Lawrence, 28-21 in 2023 in Ames, Iowa, and 45-36 in 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.

While KU has experienced some success, none of the victories have been straightforward, and the program is facing its most pivotal battle with ISU in a long time on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Ames, as it looks to get over the hump and earn bowl eligibility after failing to do so in Arizona on Nov. 8.

“I want to send my seniors out with a smile,” redshirt freshman defensive end Dakyus Brinkley said. “I don’t want to send my seniors out, obviously, how it was last year, those guys not being able to play another game, a bowl game. I would like to let these guys earn another game to show their talents and what they can do.”

Last year, the Cyclones were vying for the Big 12 championship when they met KU (and ultimately got there despite the upset loss). This season, they’re bowl eligible at a less impressive 6-4 after beating TCU 20-17 on Nov. 8 on a late special-teams touchdown, snapping a four-game losing streak in the process. Both KU and ISU enter Saturday coming off bye weeks.

“Matt Campbell and his staff have been so consistent, done such a great job there,” Leipold said. “They got off to a great start. They’ve been hit hard by the injury bug and things that have kind of probably (made) their season a little bit different than what it was heading (toward). But again, a big win for them down at TCU. Talented, physical football team, well coached.”

ISU had three players on the preseason all-conference team. Two of them were defensive backs in Jeremiah Cooper, who played in four games this year before tearing his ACL in practice, and Jontez Williams, who suffered an ACL injury of his own in the fifth game.

Both are out for the season, among a variety of other injured players in the secondary. Linebacker Will McLaughlin is also out for the year, as is tight end Gabe Burkle.

The third all-conference selection, nose tackle Domonique Orange of Kansas City, remains a force in the middle of whom Leipold said, “He’s had the kind of career that all of us felt he would as a college football player.”

The Cyclones’ defense is as always defined by its tricky 3-3-5 scheme under pioneering coordinator Jon Heacock, the former boss of KU defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald. McDonald said it can be hard to prepare for in the span of a week, especially with complexities of the third safety.

“It’s been good to have some people who have been there and done that, seen it, and worked that way,” said KU offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski, who noted that offensive analyst Eric Terrazas was also at ISU in 2023.

ISU’s defense has been a middling unit statistically this season. Zebrowski said the Cyclones will “bend somewhat” but “do their darnedest not to break” and force long drives.

One potential weakness is their lack of a pass rush. ISU is tied for second-worst in the nation with one sack per game this season, and its teamwide Pro Football Focus pass-rush grade of 62.3 is 125th in the nation.

On offense, ISU is again led by veteran starter Rocco Becht.

“Rocco Becht’s an excellent quarterback,” Leipold said. “I’ve always enjoyed watching him play. I just think as far as a guy who’s very consistent and operates the way they want him to operate that offense, it’s been impressive.”

With a new receiving corps in place this year, Becht has had a bit of a down season with just 12 touchdowns, nine picks and a 59.9% completion percentage. What he has done successfully is make use of tight ends Benjamin Brahmer (33 catches, 388 yards, five touchdowns), whom McDonald called the best tight end in the conference, and the recently ruled-out Burkle. They account for approximately a third of his completions. The Cyclones’ leading wide receiver is true sophomore wideout Brett Eskildsen, but he has just five catches in ISU’s last four games.

The productive rushing attack centers on Carson Hansen (141 carries, 721 yards, five touchdowns) and Abu Sama III (110 carries, 588 yards, four touchdowns).

“Just the offense they run is different,” McDonald said. “This conference, a lot of people are running spread, and they kind of went old-school and kind of went back to smashmouth football, and I think that’s pretty neat. That creates a challenge to try to prepare for in a week, and I’m glad we had two weeks to get ready for that and get ourselves ready to go for the type of game that it’s going to be.”

As a team, ISU has been quite disciplined this year. They commit the second-fewest penalties and draw the second-most. That amounts to a differential of nearly 24 yards per game between ISU and its opponents — the sort of margin that could be pivotal in what figures to be a hotly contested matchup in Ames.

photo by: AP Photo/LM Otero

Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht (3) passes during the first half of an NCAA college football game against TCU, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Fort Worth, Texas.

photo by: AP Photo/LM Otero

Iowa State defensive lineman Domonique Orange (95) breaks through the offensive line of scrimmage against TCU during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Iowa State Cyclones (6-4, 3-4 Big 12) vs. Kansas Jayhawks (5-5, 3-4 Big 12)

• Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, Iowa, 11 a.m.

• Broadcast: FS1

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9 / KMXN FM 92.9)

• Betting line: ISU -3.5; over/under 55.5

• Series history: KU leads 53-45-6

Keep an eye out

1. Secondary switch: The latest spin of the wheel in KU’s secondary saw cornerback Jahlil Hurley, a redshirt sophomore Alabama transfer, play a season-high 41 defensive snaps against Arizona, largely at outside corner. He acquitted himself fairly well, and was targeted just once, allowing a catch for seven yards. With Jalen Todd playing nickel, it’s difficult to tell where Hurley falls in the hierarchy at a position that also includes Austin Alexander, D.J. Graham II and Syeed Gibbs (who was suspended for the first half of the Arizona game and had some key second-half errors), but Leipold said on Monday that he earned reps with strong showings in practice: “He continues to work on consistency and those things, but I think he has strung together his best time since he’s been a Jayhawk.”

2. Backfield backup: Leipold alluded obliquely to injury trouble in the running back room. The Jayhawks had been benefiting from having both Daniel Hishaw Jr. and Leshon Williams fully healthy, which amounted to reasonably effective rushing performances against Oklahoma State and Arizona. On Monday, though, he said the situation was worse (both for the running backs and for the team at large) than it had been when KU went to Arizona, and sure enough Hishaw was listed as questionable on Wednesday night’s availability report. If KU is down Hishaw, there will be even more pressure than usual on quarterback Jalon Daniels to generate a high-level, dual-threat performance.

3. Senior surge: KU is facing ISU on its senior day. Last year the Jayhawks lost to Baylor on its senior day in a must-win game for bowl eligibility. Leipold said that teams celebrating their seniors “can go either way” — be drained or overcome by emotion, or harness it to their benefit — and the key from KU’s perspective is “managing the early rush of emotion a lot of times that that team will come out with.”

Spotlight on…

Dakyus Brinkley: The Jayhawks’ pass rush improved quite a bit against Arizona, and a big part of that was Brinkley, technically the third-string option at pass-rush defensive end behind Dean Miller and Leroy Harris III, who was involved in sacks on consecutive plays at one point during the game. Much like Hurley, Brinkley garnered praise from Leipold for his improved consistency between stretches of practice time. The result for the redshirt freshman was 20 effective snaps against the Wildcats, and he’ll have another chance to leave his mark if he can help his teammates get Becht off his spots.

Inside the numbers

19: Becht’s career total number of rushing touchdowns, which ties him with Brock Purdy for the ISU record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback.

9: Number of teams nationally to start the same five offensive linemen in all 10 games this year, a group that includes KU.

7: Number of one-score games Iowa State has played this year, in which the Cyclones are 4-3.

Prediction

KU wins 29-28. Sure, the Jayhawks have found it quite difficult to get over the hump and attain bowl eligibility in recent years, to the point that Leipold’s teams at KU are a combined 2-6 when they have five wins. But KU’s recent success against ISU (albeit with different rosters), the defensive improvement it showed against Arizona and the rash of injuries that has devastated the Cyclones all suggest this could be the opportunity for the Jayhawks to pull off a crucial victory.

• Sports reporter David Rodish contributed to this story.