ISU head football coach Dan McCarney is heading into his 12th year in Cyclone colors and his first as the dean of Big 12 coaches, but it’s who’s not coming back that’s the big story this spring.

With the Cyclones returning only five defensive starters, McCarney will face a major rebuilding job on defense in the coming weeks during spring practice.

Cornerback DeAndre Jackson is the only returning starter to the ISU secondary, and will be expected to lead the group as it learns on the fly.

“It feels good to be looked upon as a leader,” Jackson said. “It gives me an opportunity to lead everyone that’s younger than me and has less experience. We have a lot of good players in this group. We just need to get the plays down and get some experience.”

Jackson had 55 tackles and led the team – along with graduated cornerback LaMarcus Hicks – with five interceptions, raising McCarney’s expectations for Jackson in the coming season.

“Clearly DeAndre Jackson is the leader back there,” McCarney said. “He had a great junior year and I fully expect him to go out and have at least the kind of year Ellis Hobbs had as a senior year.”

The expectations don’t scare Jackson, in fact, he said he’s embracing them with open arms.

“It’s exciting that I have to be a leader,” Jackson said. “Everyone – all the younger guys are watching what I do so I can’t slack off at all, even if I’m tired.”

McCarney said the coaching staff and the players can’t wait for spring practice to get going – the team won’t practice in full pads until Saturday – and said they are ready to build on recent successes.

“We’ve got a lot of momentum in the program,” McCarney said. “We want to build and improve on last season. There’s only five teams in the Big 12 that have been to five bowl games in six years, and we’re proud of that and we want to build on that.”

The Cyclones are in nearly a complete opposite situation on offense with 10 of their 11 starters returning.

Offensive lineman Johannes Egbers is the only loss for the Cyclone offense, which was one of the top units in the conference last year.

“We did a lot of good things last year,” McCarney said. “Obviously we’ve got to upgrade our running game and be better there. Other than the rushing game – which is very important – we finished in the top half of the Big 12 in every offensive category.

“We also need to cut down on sacks, hits and pressures on [quarterback] Bret Meyer.”

Meyer said the Cyclones can’t just assume anything will be handed to them this year based on last year’s performance.

He said Iowa State must remain hungry.

“It feels good to get back out here,” Meyer said. “Most of us have a bad taste in our mouth so it’s good to get out here and work. It really doesn’t matter how many people you have coming back, we just have to go out and play and get the job done.”

Jackson said it’s time the Cyclones stop talking about what could’ve been and start talking about what they did do.

“We came out of last season, we know what we could’ve had,” Jackson said. “We want to get the word ‘coulda, shoulda’ out of there. That’s what sparks everyone on this team. We know what we could’ve had and now everyone’s fired up and ready to come out here and get it.”

When the Cyclones finally do kick-off their 2006 campaign Aug. 31 at Jack Trice Stadium against Toledo, it will be McCarney’s 12th at the helm making him the dean of Big 12 coaches.

“I’m honored – basically, it’s a season of opportunity as far as I look at it,” McCarney said. We took this job 12 years ago and the players and coaches that have joined me here know that we get to play against some of the best teams in college football and we’ll be ready to go out and get it done.”

Iowa State will hold 15 spring practices culminating with the spring game at 1 p.m. April 15 at Jack Trice Stadium.

ISU Football Depth Chart

The good news for the Iowa State football team is that 17 starters return from last season’s team. The bad news, only five of those starters are on defense. ISU coach Dan McCarney released his first depth chart of the season Wednesday. Players who started games at their positions last season are listed in bold.

Offense

WR – Jon Davis, Sr

Milan Moses, Jr or

Ryan Baum, Jr

LT – Scott Fisher, Sr

Jordan Goos, So

LG – Seth Zehr, Sr

Tom Schmeling, So

C – Scott Stephenson, Sr

Bastian Schober, Jr

Anthony Walker, Jr

RG – Paul Fisher, Sr

Brandon Cook, Jr

RT – Aaron Brant, Sr

John Tjaden, Jr

TE – Ben Barkema, Jr

Brandon Tinlin, Jr

WR – Austin Flynn, Sr

Marquis Hamilton, Fr

WR – Todd Blythe, Jr

R.J. Sumrall, So

QB – Bret Meyer, Jr

Kyle Van Winkle, Sr

IB – Stevie Hicks, Sr

Jason Scales, So

HB – Walter Nickel, Sr

Derrick Catlett, Fr

FB – Ryan Kock, Sr

Steven Ebner, So

Defense

END – Travis Ferguson, So

Nick Frere, So

NG – Stephon Dale, Fr

Matt Berg, Fr

DT – Brent Curvey, Sr

Bryce Braaksma, Jr

RUSH – Shawn Moorehead, Sr

Kurtis Taylor, Jr

SLB – Adam Carper, So

Brandon Hunley, So

MLB – Matt Robertson, Sr

Tyrone McKenzie, So

WLB – Alvin Bowen, Jr

Josh Raven, Fr

LCB – DeAndre Jackson, Jr

Chris Brown, So

RCB – Chris Singleton, Fr

Stephen Jackson, Fr

SS – Caleb Berg, So

James Smith, Fr

FS – Jon Banks, Jr

Houston Jones, So

Special Teams

PK – Bret Culbertson, Jr

Chris Mahoski, Fr or

Josh Griebahn, Jr

P – Michael Brandtner, Fr

Scott Krava, Jr

DS – Brian Perry, So