Pass — no, run — back to pass — wait, he’s running again.

Defensive indecision is common when a defense lines up against a quarterback such as Iowa State’s Austen Arnaud. In addition to his aerial numbers — 268 yards, three touchdowns — Arnaud rushed 17 times for 44 yards against Kansas last weekend.

Arnaud’s 134 rushing yards are the fourth-most of any quarterback in the conference. On Saturday, the Kansas defense will square off against Colorado quarterback Cody Hawkins, who ranks last in the conference with negative-35 rushing yards.

“As a defensive back, the thing you hate the worst is being in coverage and having to run down and track down a quarterback who just ran out of the zone,” safety Darrell Stuckey said. “It feels a lot better knowing a quarterback’s going to stand in the pocket and throw downfield. It allows you to just focus on your receiver and the coverage that you’re in.”

Hawkins is one of three Big 12 quarterbacks with negative rushing yards and the only one of those who couples that stat with fewer than 1,000 passing yards.

“There’s really not too many pocket quarterbacks in the Big 12, that’s for sure,” defensive end John Larson said. “Cody can use his feet when he needs to, but he looks to read coverages and make a good throw before he looks to run.”

It’s been a rough season for Cody, who is the son of Colorado coach Dan Hawkins. The younger Hawkins has completed less than 60 percent of his passes, has thrown four interceptions and has been sacked 10 times.

In last week’s 38-14 loss at home, Texas’ defense blitzed constantly and brought him down behind the line of scrimmage three times.

“He’s a tough kid, he takes a lot of hits,” coach Mark Mangino said. “He took some vicious hits (against Texas) and jumped right up.”

Seeing the success of the Longhorns blitz-happy attack, linebacker Mike Rivera said he thought his defense might have an easier time getting to Hawkins than it did Arnaud.

That’s good news for the defense because more pressure means more fun and more fun usually leads to success.

“You definitely love to blitz because you get a chance to hit the quarterback, and everybody loves sacking the quarterback,” Rivera said.

Recently Rivera has come under some fire for a lack of effort. He didn’t start against Sam Houston State or Iowa State.

However, in the second half on Saturday, Rivera shot out like a cannon, and defensive coordinator Clint Bowen said his linebacker was playing with more desire. That’s something Bowen said he had been looking for in his linebacker corps for the entire season.

“Someone has to step up and make a play beyond just playing football,” Bowen said. “You’re talking about guys making plays and doing something special, and there are guys in that linebacker crew that have the ability to do that and need to do that. That’s their obligation to being on this team and playing.”

— — Edited by Andy Greenhaw