Mike Brantner wants off the field. He’s in the minority if there are enough kickers to have one.

The senior punter returns to the Cyclones spearheading a kicking squad that features him as the sole veteran.

“Hopefully, this year I play a little less,” said Brantner. “Most kids want to play more but I hope to play less … from a team standpoint, I think we all want that.”

The Cyclones may have a punter, but other kicking positions are up in the air. After graduating seniors Bret Culbertson, Josh Griebahn and Matt Purvis, the Cyclones spent most of the off-season searching for replacements.

Culbertson, who connected on 10 of 18 field goal attempts last season, shared kickoff duties with Griebahn, while Purvis was the Cyclones’ long snapper. Each was subjected to criticism due to a lack of depth, as other options were unexplorable.

Now, however, the Cyclones do have options to explore in the form of two high school seniors they signed to scholarships this spring – Urbandale’s Zach Guyer and Marion’s Grant Mahoney.

“They’re very good,” said Brantner, who last year kicked 69 punts for an average of 39.4 yards and seven touchbacks. “They’re both very good kickers. They’ve got a lot of potential and have very strong legs.”

Both have also been missing for the majority of the spring. Besides minimal work during Saturday trips to Ames, the pair are still completing their final semesters in high school.

“The kicking issues will obviously be addressed by somebody that’s not here right now,” said head coach Gene Chizik. “It is a little bit difficult.”

But manageable.

Guyer, a 6-foot-3-inch, 180-pound kicker, hit 11 of 14 field goal attempts as a senior with the Jayhawks, including a 49-yarder against Dowling Catholic. He’s expected to handle kickoffs.

Mahoney, at 6 feet, 1 inch and 180 pounds, connected on three straight 50-yard field goal attempts at the Kohl Scholarship Camp. He’s expected to take over place-kicking duties.

Both will be used as depth and added incentive in each role, something the Cyclones’ kicking squad was missing last season.

“A guy can’t go into it feeling ‘that’s my spot, and I have the right to play that position and I have nobody pushing behind me,'” said running backs and special teams coach Jay Boulware. “That’s not going to be the case. We’re going to have guys pushing everyone.”

Most of that won’t happen until the summer, when the rest of the squad arrives on campus. For now, Boulware said his special teams squad has been set and has already been running drills – running them without its starting kicker. He doesn’t see that as a problem.

“He’s just a bonus, really,” said Boulware. “He just does his job and goes off the field.”

It’s when both kickers arrive in Ames that he’ll learn whether the Cyclones have struck it rich with their additions.

“The kicking game is not an exact science,” he said. “You try to look at them as much as you possibly can, and hopefully you make good decisions, but unless you see them kick in person then it’s really hard to evaluate those guys.”

Which leaves Brantner, who Boulware got to see plenty of last season. The third-year starter is averaging 40.2 yards in 124 career punts, ninth in school history. He hopes to see an across-the-board improvement in the kicking game.

“We’re all hoping to improve as a whole,” said Brantner.