Never mind the fact that K-State needs two more wins to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2006.
And never mind the fact that the Wildcats, well, just want to beat Kansas for the sake of beating Kansas.
No, there's no pressure on the Wildcats, who kickoff against their in-state rival at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, with everything on the line.
Despite all that, KSU coach Bill Snyder is just treating this game like business as usual.
"There are several teams with their destiny in their hands and Kansas State is certainly one of those teams," Snyder said this week. "That's the only dialogue we've had that relates to what the future could hold after three ball games."
KSU defensive end Jeff Fitzgerald said he isn't even thinking about everything that's at stake this weekend -- just winning a football game.
"I think it would be a mistake looking that far," said Fitzgerald, who leads the Wildcats with six sacks this season. "Our goal right now is winning this game. If we do that, other things will come with us doing what we need to do."
K-State enters the game coming off a 4230 loss at Oklahoma last Saturday, but still on a relative hot streak when compared to the Jayhawks' recent plight of losing three straight games to Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas Tech.
The Wildcats (5-4, 3-2 Big 12), despite their recent success, are still looking for consistency though. Sure, K-State has seemed to find a winning ingredient of late, but Snyder points to the 62-14 route of Texas A&M on Oct. 17 as the only complete performance all season.
"The Texas A&M game was probably the greatest single example of playing with the kind of consistency that is important for our program during the time that our number ones were on the field -- which went into a brief period of time into the third quarter," Snyder said. "So we're basically saying that we have about half a game that we've demonstrated consistency throughout the program that would allow us to become the kind of program that we want to be, the kind of team we want to be."
Perhaps that kind of team looks similar to the team that KU has been for the better part of the last three seasons -- a contender in the Big 12 North.
Considering that, and because the Jayhawks (5-3, 1-3) are the first of three straight division rivals to end the season, Saturday's game has all the makings of a playoff according to KSU quarterback Grant Gregory.
"Everyone in the college football world, BCS this or BCS that, wants a playoff, but this is our playoff," he said. "We're in a three-game playoff. If we win them all, we're going to be in the Big 12 championship. The regular season is that playoff. You win your games, you're going to get to where you want to be."
To get there though, K-State has to dismantle a KU offense led by quarterback Todd Reesing, the most prolific passer in Jayhawk history. Reesing has completed 64 percent of his passes -- including 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions -- while averaging 298 yards a game through the air.
"Todd might be the most intelligent quarterback in the game," Snyder said. "That's not to put anyone else down, but he's a good student and you watch him and he makes good decisions, he always knows exactly where to go, plays with great confidence.
"He's a short quarterback by standards and yet he stands in there and finds those throwing lanes and they do a nice job of creating those throwing lanes for him. And he has the ability to bounce out and can run well."
But Reesing has come under scrutiny lately during KU's three-gameslide -- a trio of games in which the senior QB watched his completion percentage plummet, passing yards drop and accuracy slip with four interceptions -- ultimately being benched during the fourth quarter last week for ineffectiveness. Making things harder on Reesing has been the lack of protection he's received, leading to 14 sacks in the three games.
"I think you guys make it a big deal," KU coach Mark Mangino said about last week's benching of Reesing. "It is not a big deal. When you look at the circumstances and what had taken place over a period of time, it was the appropriate thing to do.
Snyder doesn't see a quarterback that is struggling.
"They talk about him having bad ball games, but I don't know how bad they really were," he said. " He can put it where their guy is and your guy isn't."
A big part of Reesing's success can be traced back to the play of KU's pair of dynamic receivers in Kerry Meier and Dezmon Briscoe, who have 119 receptions -- including 11 TDs -- and 1,507 yards between them.
"Briscoe is as good as I've seen," Snyder said. "And they're all big, they'll go get it, attack the ball, they're aggressive wide receivers. Kerry has as good of hands as you will find in the game of football -- anywhere -- and has a knack for getting into open spaces."
Offense might be the least of the Jayhawks' concerns though as KU's defense has appeared to be its weakest link all season. Kansas has been solid against the run, holding teams to just 99 yards a game, which ranks 14th nationally. Against the pass, however, it's a different story as KU ranks last in the Big 12 and No. 100 nationally, allowing nearly 250 yards a game.
"Their numbers would indicate that they haven't played well against the pass and they've played relatively well against the run," Snyder said. "But when you play against a lot of teams that throw the ball around, your numbers probably aren't going to look very pretty. Ours didn't look very pretty against some of those teams either."
With KU's defensive issues in mind, K-State's offense hopes to continue what it started a week ago at OU when the Wildcats turned in one of the best offensive showings against a tough Sooners' defense. K-State racked up more than 200 yards rushing and scored 30 points, the most scored against OU all season and the second-most in the last 54 games against the Sooners.
"We improved, but we didn't get the job done," said Gregory, who has 665-passing yards in five starts. "That's what matters. We have another chance next week to do something that hasn't happened in a while, haven't beaten KU in a few years and get them at home. We need to take another step forward."
