Football Depth Chart: Offensive Line

Coming into the 2012 season, there will be two key strengths filled with returning starters: the quarterback position and the offensive line. Working together, either Steele Jantz or Jared Barnett should get the opportunity and be a little more consistent. The line should be able to give them that opportunity.

The returners: left guard Ethan Tuftee (junior), center Tom Farniok (sophomore, pictured), and right tackle Brayden Burris (senior). All of them were redshirted in their initial season with the Cyclones.

Tuftee started in 10 games last season, missing the other three with a knee injury. Farniok won the Dury Moss Award, given by the university to the most outstanding newcomer. He started in all 13 games. Burris played in seven games, missing six straight games after a leg injury against Texas.

New starters will be redshirt senior Carter Bykowski at left tackle and redshirt sophomore Jacob Gannon at right guard.

Bykowski is listed at 6-foot-8 and 303 pounds, and did play in all 13 games last season with the Cyclones. He filled in for Burris at right tackle, starting in four different games. Gannon is very similar; also playing in every game, he had two starts and filled in for Tuftee. The right guard is listed at 6-foot-7, 286 pounds.

Both new starters are recognized by their excellence in the classroom. They’ve been on the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll for at least one semester, and both of them have been on the second team of the Academic All-Big 12 (Bykowski in 2010 and Gannon in 2011).

Another center to watch is senior Sam Tautolo. He’s a JUCO transfer from Saddleback that played in five games last season for the Cyclones.

With Barnett’s athleticism and a pretty good running attack, the offensive line wasn’t as exposed as it could have been. One thing that they will need to work on is keeping whichever quarterback from getting plastered to the ground. They let the opposing teams sack their guys 27 total times.

Brian Spaen is the lead editor for Clones Confidential, follow the site on Twitter and Facebook. Read his other work on the Oregon Ducks blog, Autzen Zoo, and Watson Talk Lacrosse.