If the ISU coaching staff needed any reminder about one of the biggest offensive voids to fill coming into the 2011 season, they got it last Tuesday just a few hours before spring practices began. Tight end Collin Franklin, last season’s leading receiver, was in the Bergstrom Indoor Practice Facility on Tuesday, but not getting ready for practice.

He was busy improving his draft stock with an impressive Pro Day performance in front of NFL scouts.

To replace Franklin’s production — 54 catches, 530 yards and three touchdowns — assistant coach Luke Wells will rely on a corps of tight ends that returns only one player, redshirt junior Kurt Hammerschmidt, who has caught a pass in a Cyclone uniform.

“You lose a guy like Collin Franklin that led our team in catches,” Wells said. “So we want to make sure we fill that void and have a guy that’s going to be consistent catching the football, going to be consistent blocking, going to be consistent doing all the different things that we have to do in our offense.”

Last week ISU coach Paul Rhoads announced that Wells, who last season coached wide receivers, would be swapping positions with Courtney Messingham, who coached the tight ends over the last two seasons. This season won’t mark the first go-round for Wells coaching tight ends as he also coached the position in 2004 and 2005 at Louisiana-Monroe.

“It’s kind of fun to get back in the trenches,” Wells said. “It’s been a good transition.”

In his first week with the tight ends, Wells emphasized the need to improve ball skills and to develop the proper blocking techniques so that whoever is on the field can block a 280-pound defensive lineman while also being able to maneuver in space and block a smaller defensive back.

“I think he brings a whole different terminology to the game as far as catching the ball,” Hammerschmidt said. “He’s more receiver-focused, but he also brings in more stuff that he knows about blocking that I’ve never heard of.”

Seven pounds heavier than he was last season, the 6-foot-6, 260-pound Hammerschmidt has shown Wells that he can match some of the physical play he’ll see from defenders next season.

“The thing that Hammer has really impressed me with right now is he’s a physical kid, he comes off the ball really well and he blocks well,” Wells said.

Behind Hammerschmidt on the depth chart is senior Reid Branderhorst and redshirt freshman Pierce Richardson. Senior Ricky Howard and redshirt junior Vince Ewald will also be fighting for the vacant starting spot.

Not only will next season’s tight end have less experience than last year’s, but so too will be whichever quarterback wins the starting job. In the same way that Austen Arnaud often relied on Franklin last season, Wells believes whoever lines up at tight end this season will need to be a consistent go-to option in the ISU offense.

“The tight end has got to be your friend,” said Wells, former college quarterback at Oklahoma. “You gotta have a guy that you can dump the ball off to, you gotta have a good, legit inside receiver that knows how to run vertical seams and get open, knows how to read coverage and is able to separate from linebackers, find the open hole and be able to play in space.”