Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of articles focusing on the different positions up for grabs during spring practice. See Friday’s Daily for a look at special teams.

Questions surround nearly every position on the ISU football team this spring with the dawning of the Gene Chizik era, but at receiver, the Cyclones appear to be fairly settled.

Cyclone fans have had excitement around a deep stable of talent at the wide receiver position and they are without a doubt the deepest crew on the team.

“I think the receivers are really competing right now,” Chizik said.

“They’ve been practicing really hard. Everyone there is really putting the work in.”

The receivers are dominated by juniors and seniors on the spring depth charts, an encouraging sign that the ISU passing game may hit the ground running this fall, but Chizik is banking on the experience, allowing the receivers to learn the new offense quickly.

“I think that we’re learning every day,” Chizik said. “We got a lot of works-in-progress going on. It gets sloppy out there sometimes because it’s a new offense. I’m really encouraged though by the attitude.”

The receivers can look to senior Todd Blythe to lead them not only through the spring, but as a real mentor through the regular season.

Blythe will be in his fourth year of starting for the Cyclones, and is on pace to leave with many of Iowa State’s most prestigious receiving records.

Blythe will be looked upon to step up and fill the void after Iowa State graduated its top-two receivers from last year, in terms of total catches, Austin Flynn and Jon Davis.

Blythe, along with R.J. Sumrall, Milan Moses and Marquis Hamilton are returning with significant experience, while Houston Jones II is also listed on early depth charts.

The key to a quick start for the Cyclone passing game will be if the receivers can get a good handle on the offense from game one.

Blythe, who is already the all-time leader in touchdown receptions at Iowa State, admitted at times this spring the newness of the offensive system can make him look like a freshman.

“My head is spinning a little bit. I think everyone’s is,” Blythe said. “Everything we’re doing is fast and up-tempo.”

Blythe also said the new offense has been almost like a complete overhaul of what the Cyclones have been used to running.

“It’s quite a bit different. Some of the main concepts are the same, but some other things are completely different from anything we’ve ever run in the past,” he said.

Blythe last year had a team high eight touchdown catches – Iowa State only had 12 as a team – but at times defenses were able to lock on Blythe alone and deny him the ball, which led to frustration among fans. Blythe said this year, with the new system, that won’t be a problem.

“The beautiful thing about this offense is everyone is going to catch balls,” Blythe said. “It’s not going to be just all about one or two guys. The defenses will pick up on that pretty quickly I think. They’re going to realize they can’t just focus on two guys and try and double team one or two guys.”

Blythe also hinted at the appearance of more bubble screening and shorter possession receiver types of routes being featured in the new offense in line with Chizik’s plan of moving the chains and ball control on offense.

That emphasis has also brought more attention to consistency by the receivers and on dropped passes, which Chizik had some strong words for.

“We have to work on overall consistency and on consistency in routes,” Chizik said. “We need more consistency in catching the football. I don’t ever like to look up and see a guy drop a football. We’re college athletes – college wideouts. That should never happen. There ought to be a 100 percent completion rate. We’re putting pressure on them to do that and we’re not taking dropped balls lightly.”

The receivers are sure to feel that pressure, especially with question marks surrounding the offensive line and at running back, as they will likely be the spark plug – especially early on – that makes the offense go.

Blythe said the receiving corps can’t focus on the pressure and have to worry about only what they can control: making plays.

“I don’t think we feel any more pressure or any added pressure than any other position,” Blythe said. “We just need to go out and perform. We know that in this offense we’re going to be put in a position where we can go out and make plays.”