Last season, the ISU Cyclone football squad was held together by one of the best defensive lines in school history.

James Reed, Reggie Hayward, Ryan Harklau and Kevin DeRonde led the Cyclones to arguably the best season in school history as Iowa State capped a 9-3 regular season finish with a 37-29 win over Pittsburgh in the Insight.com Bowl.

Graduation, however, took its toll on the team, and gone from the line are Reed, Hayward, Harklau and sub Nigel Tharpe.

DeRonde is left to captain a young line that has some mighty shoes to fill.

“Once the seniors leave and you become a senior yourself, you’ve got to step up more and encourage guys more,” DeRonde said. “You’ve got to lead by example.”

DeRonde set a good example for his young teammates last season as he played in all 11 games and recorded 60 tackles, good for sixth on the team, and took down the quarterback twice.

“Kevin is a guy that we’re really looking forward to be an anchor for our defensive line,” ISU defensive coordinator John Skladany said. “He’s started off and on for three years, and this is his fourth year of really playing football and he’s played really good football, so we’re lucky we got him.”

But DeRonde can’t do it alone. Other linemen will have to find a way to make up for the loss of 266 tackles and 11 sacks that Reed, Hayward, Harklau and Tharpe produced last season.

One player who can step up and produce will be sophomore Jordan Carstens. He earned a scholarship last season and even more than that found his way into many games.

“We know we got big shoes to fill,” Carstens said. “Personally, I enjoy that ’cause it’s another challenge you gotta step up to and perform to the best of your ability and that’s what we gotta do.”

As a freshman, Carstens had 48 tackles, ranking him 12th on the team. He also had one sack.

“Jordan, to me, is a veteran,” Skladany said. “He’s played a ton of ball last year and played really well. He was good every game last year, he’s a good player.”

Skladany pointed to several players he felt were going to have to step up to fill the hole left by the seniors who are gone.

William Judd, Brett Kellogg, Paul Jarrett, Tim TeBrink and Andy Leaders were some of the players that the coach mentioned.

“We’re gonna be young in our depth, but I think we’ve got a chance to be pretty good,” Skladany said.