Allen’s solidly in the one-if-by-land camp.

“I see more running,” Kansas University football coach Terry Allen said Wednesday at his regular weekly press conference. “They have a tendency, when they think they can physically dominate a team that’s the game plan.”

If the No. 19 Longhorns (7-2 overall, 5-1 Big 12) pop in a tape from last Saturday’s Kansas-Nebraska game, they’d have reason to think they’ll be able to run over, around and through the Jayhawks. NU rushed for 493 yards against Kansas last Saturday, and UT’s top running back, Hodges Mitchell, is coming off a 45-carry, 229-yard day against Texas Tech.

Furthermore, Longhorns quarterback Major Applewhite, who had been splitting time with Chris Simms before winning the job outright, suffered a knee injury last weekend and likely won’t play Saturday, which might make the Longhorns more landlocked than normal.

Then again, the Jayhawks have proven susceptible to the pass, too. Texas Tech threw for 409 total yards, and Allen holds UT up as a perfect example of a team likely to pass as much as run.

“They don’t do it with the same style (as Nebraska),” Allen said. “Texas has the physical ability to simply come at you, but they want to throw the football. They’re not committed to 90 percent running the football. Texas is not going to come in here and throw the football 68 times. They might throw it 15, 20 times, but they’re going to throw the football.”

Whether by land or by air, the Jayhawk defenders need to regroup. They’ve surrendered 101 points the past two weeks combined.

“We’ll respond fine,” KU senior linebacker Tim Bowers said. “Nebraska’s Nebraska. They got the steamroller going and we couldn’t stop it. We just need to go back and work on our defense and get ready for Texas. I don’t know it’s a sense of urgency. We just have to play our game and not get caught up in two bad games we had. We just need to get back to playing like we did the rest of the season.”

If they do that, they might be able to extend their season. Kansas (4-5, 2-4) needs two wins to qualify for its first postseason since 1995. The Jayhawks will end the regular season next Saturday at Iowa State.

“I feel very strongly if we get a victory here, we can get a victory next weekend,” Allen said. “This is an all-the-chips-on-the-table game.”

Kansas and Texas had a similar showdown in 1997, Allen’s first season. The Jayhawks headed to Austin, Texas, needing a victory to become bowl-eligible. UT won then, 45-31.

“I remember that game,” Allen said. “After the first quarter, we might have been ahead and going, ‘This isn’t so bad.’ Then Ricky Williams was done with a first-quarter suspension and he finished with 222 yards. I remember Ricky came out in the second quarter and I was going, ‘Boy, is this guy good.'”

“They did what they had to do,” recalled KU running back David Winbush, one of 20 seniors who will be honored on Senior Day Saturday. “We thought we could win, but Ricky Williams said otherwise. It’s like this year. Our offense had a slow start all year, then we scored 31 points on ’em. This year we started off slow, too, but we picked up.”

Kansas-Texas will kick off at 1 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.