Facing the Kansas State defense is not going to be anything new to offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. He has coached against them for the last three seasons at Baylor and has a good idea what they will bring on Saturday night.

But Grimes does see some different styles from their defense over the years.

“I've played against them the last three years, and they're tough,” Grimes said. “They play extremely hard, as hard as any group that I've played against. Their effort and their toughness is exceptional. Ten out of ten, their knowledge of the scheme is really high. A bunch of guys who have been playing a lot of football in that system, and they're doing more than they've ever done.”

Kansas State plays a 3-3-5 defense, which is similar to what Iowa State brought to the Big 12 years ago under Matt Campbell and Jon Heacock. Over the years Kansas State has tweaked and added elements to show different looks.

Grimes said Kansas State brings more pressure than past defenses.

“I played these guys three years ago, they were running a system, I would say at that time, that was more similar to Iowa State than what it is now,” Grime said. “They still base out of the same personnel grouping and often the same front structure, but a lot more.

There's a lot more pressure, a lot more types of pressure, and really, they've become more and more aggressive. Each of the last two years, I think that aggression combined with players who know what they're doing and play really hard is a really big challenge.”

Last year the Jayhawks had success moving the ball especially on the ground finishing with 234 yards. Devin Neal led the way with 138 yards and three touchdowns. They did it in a variety of ways including quarterback designed runs, option, and out of the wildcat formation.

Grimes has been breaking down a lot of film and watched last year’s game.

“I've looked at as much film as I can without just completely not sleeping for the last 48 hours,” he said. I looked at what Kansas did last year and when I was at Baylor and other teams who played them over the years and done well. Because when it's a tough defense and a unique defense like this, then you're trying to dig and scratch and find as many opportunities as you can to get first downs.”

Although Kansas State technically lines up in a three-man front, they bring four and five defenders making preparation difficult.

“I would say almost everybody you play, plays some form of three man and four man front,” Grimes said. “That's not all that atypical. What is unusual is they're stimming just before the snap changing the front from one front to the other. So, it looks like it's going to be in an odd front with three down, and they slide it over and then it's an even front and they cover up both guards. Or they start with their defensive ends wide and then they tighten them up on the tackles and walk the linebackers up.”