When ISU football coach Paul Rhoads began a news conference by talking about the women’s basketball team, it was clear he had been getting what he wanted out of the offseason.

Rhoads opened his second spring practice as head coach with the news conference at the Jacobson Building on Tuesday.

“Usually, by now, kids are sick and tired of just the weight room and just the conditioning portion of practice,” Rhoads said.

“I haven’t felt that in this offseason — I believe they’ve attacked those workouts, but now they’re equally excited about starting practice and getting the football portion of it going again.”

Rhoads took a lot of time to address the team’s defensive needs, especially at linebacker.

The Cyclones lost all three starters from last season, but have a number of players in competition for positions. Sophomores Jake Knott, A.J. Klein and Kevin Hamlin and junior Jake Lattimer are all in contention for the outside linebacker spot.

Senior Matt Tau’fo’ou appears to be the favorite to succeed Jesse Smith at middle linebacker after seeing action in only two games last season.

“He’s a physical, downhill player,” Rhoads said of Tau’fo’ou.

“And I think he brings good leadership skills that you want in that position, the guy that’s got to call the huddle and get people straight and get people set.”

Although the departed linebackers leave a big gap in the defense, the players that learned from them over the past season feel that they have been properly prepared to fill their predecessors’ cleats.

“I know it’s going to be a loss, but I don’t think we’re going to sag behind in any way,” Klein said.

“I know Jesse [Smith], Freddy [Garrin] and [Josh] Raven contributed to us young guys, teaching us the ropes and teaching us what we need to do as players to be successful.”

Along with new player personnel, Rhoads said the defense will focus more on the pass rush.

The Cyclones finished last in the Big 12 with 16 sacks last season.

“We’ve got to get pressure on the quarterback,” Rhoads said.

“We brought very little pressure last year, we’ll bring more and we’ll play more man coverage this year because I think we have a secondary capable of handling that.”

That secondary will return the most starters of the defense, including senior safety and 2009 Big 12 Defensive Newcomer of the Year David Sims.

“We’ve got high expectations of ourselves going into spring ball,” said senior strong safety David Sims. “After the bowl win, we just want to keep it hot. Nobody really believes in us so we’re going to work hard in spring and get ready for the season.”

While the defense will mostly have a new look, the offense returns a majority of its starters from last season.

Redshirt sophomore Jerome Tiller will miss some early practices after a recent knee scope surgery.

While he will be participating in throwing drills and should return for the second half of spring practice, Rhoads feels that Tiller and incumbent quarterback Austen Arnaud could benefit from his presence after he had a strong offseason.

“Austen is going to work to the best of his ability without necessarily having that competition take place, which is a positive for him,” Rhoads said. “But I’d much rather have Jerome out there for all 15 practices so I’m disappointed in that.”

The play of the quarterbacks mixed with the shifted offensive line will no doubt have an effect on the passing game, which took a backseat to the run for a lot of last season.

Iowa State finished ninth in the Big 12 in passing offense compared to its third-place finish in rushing.

“We definitely need to improve our passing efficiency,” said senior wide receiver Jake Williams. “Last year we relied on our run game a lot to get us out of some situations and I think it’s going to be pretty competitive at the receiver spot and I think that will help a lot.”

The one area of the offense that will see some changes is the offensive line.

Senior Ben Lamaak will move to center and junior Scott Haughton will take his place at right guard.

Despite that change, all five of the projected starters on the line saw action in at least one game last season.

“With the offensive line remaining pretty much intact, we think we’ll be at least as good,” Rhoads said.

Through the offseason workouts, Lamaak has already shown improvement in snap timing, which is something Rhoads stressed last season.

Considering Lamaak and quarterback Austen Arnaud are roommates, developing chemistry shouldn’t be a problem.

“He’ll definitely let me know when it’s a bad snap, that’s for sure,” Lamaak joked. “He kind of blames it on me, but I’ll take that blame.”

Along with Tiller, senior defensive end Rashawn Parker and redshirt junior running back Bo Williams will be held from contact drills due to lingering injuries, but are expected to be back before the end of spring practice.

Bailey Johnson, Lonzie Range and Walter Woods are out indefinitely.

Spring practices started Tuesday and will conclude with the Cyclone Gridiron Club spring game on April 17.