Cole Netten’s illustrious career as an Iowa State kicker came to an end last season and Iowa State is still looking for his replacement.

The new placekicker could be Oregon State transfer Garrett Owens, who hit 32-of-45 field goal attempts in three years at Oregon State. Maybe Chris Francis, who handled kickoff duties for Iowa State last year, will get the nod.

Iowa State’s pre-fall camp depth chart had Owens as the No. 1 placekicker, but that’s far from a lock with nearly a month to go before Iowa State takes the field for its first game of 2017, according to special teams coach Bryan Gasser.

“I think both those two guys are competing at a very high level,” Gasser said.

Owens has more experience as a placekicker, but has had troubles from long range in his career. Of his 13 career missed field goal attempts, nine have been from 40 yards or longer. Owens is nearly automatic on extra point attempts and short field goals — he is 77-for-78 in his career on PATs — but Francis may have the stronger leg.

Francis recorded 35 touchbacks on 67 kickoff attempts in 2016, compared to just 13 touchbacks on 79 attempts for Owens in his three years at Oregon State.

“Right now, we’re giving both those guys an equal opportunity,” Gasser said. “I think both of them deserve it and I think both of them have earned the respect of our staff up to this point with how they’ve worked and how they’ve competed.”

Through three days of fall camp, Gasser said he doesn’t think either Francis or Owens have missed a field goal in practice.

“It’s fun,” Owens said. “We’re pushing each other, we’re trying to get better each and every day because when he’s pushing me and I’m pushing him, that’s when we’re at our best.”

The most likely scenario seems to be a situation where Owens handles field goal duties and Francis takes care of kickoffs, similar to the system used last year with Netten and Francis.

“It’s really up to what the coaches want to do,” Owens said. “We’re just pushing each other in both aspects of the game and trying to make each other better.”

Who handles return duties?

Iowa State had a successful kick return unit a season ago, thanks to the speed of running back Kene Nwangwu. Nwangwu was named to Pro Football Focus’s first team Freshman All-America squad thanks to his 26.4 yards per return. Nwangwu added a 97-yard kick return for a touchdown in the season finale against West Virginia and had the second-most returns of 40 or more yards in the nation with five.

Nwangwu, however, suffered an achilles injury in the offseason and is still limited in workouts and practices. Matt Campbell and the rest of the coaching staff have said they hope he can play in 2017 but it seems unlikely he will handle all kickoff returns, given how much time and practice he has missed.

With Nwangwu possibly missing time, who will handle the return duties?

Gasser and Campbell said it could be anyone from veteran punt returner Trever Ryen to true freshman Johnnie Lang.

“The kick return spot will be interesting,” Gasser said. “Obviously losing Kene, when you talk about one of the top returners in the country last year, and doing that as a true freshman was certainly a great luxury and something we were excited about heading into this season.

“Trever had a great season for us last year and you even saw D’Andre Payne back there and Deshaunte Jones back there a little bit so we’ve got some tools and some weapons.”

Ryen, who was a first team All-Big 12 member as a punt returner last season, returned 16 kicks in 2015 but did not return a single kick last year. He could be an option at the kick return spot and will likely be the main option on punt returns again.

Ryen said there are some differences between how the old staff used to coach kick returns and how the current staff coaches them.

“I did it when I first got here with coach [Paul] Rhoads,” Ryen said. “So it’s a little bit different, the way we draw things up and stuff like that. But I’m ready for it, I’m excited. If I get to the opportunity to I’m going to take full advantage of it.”