Dueling for line spots

AMES - Last season, Carter Bykowski and Kyle Lichtenberg dueled about who did the dishes.

This spring, the Iowa State offensive lineman - and former roommates - begin the battle for the No. 1 left tackle spot vacated by first-team all-Big 12 standout Kelechi Osemele, who is widely projected as a first- or second-round pick in next month's NFL Draft.

“Nothing's set in stone and I think that's great,” said the 6-6, 294-pound Lichtenberg, who has also seen reps at right tackle in the first two spring practices. “It makes everyone compete on the offensive line and it makes you play better because you know there's a guy breathing down your neck.”

Even if he's a good friend.

“When you're on the field you've got to put all that kind of stuff behind you. You can't think of it that way. Even when you're going against the defense. I've got friends on the defense, but you can't think of them as friends on the field. They're your enemy.”

And there are plenty of friendly enemies on the revamped offensive line, which lost Osemele and fellow pro prospect Hayworth Hicks, but is deeper than it's been in recent memory.

Bykowski and Lichtenberg, a sophomore, saw significant action last season while Osemele, starting right tackle Brayden Burris and others missed time because of injury.

“You can't recreate game speed, like they say,” Bykowski, a 6-8, 303-pound senior, said of the valuable experience. “You can practice so hard, but once you get out the game moves that much faster.”

Burris suffered the most in 2011, missing most of the season with a broken leg bone that's been repaired with a 7-inch plate and accompanying screws.

“He was playing really well until he broke his leg at Texas - as good as anyone we had,” assistant head coach and offensive line coach Bill Bleil said. “He's a good football player and he's responded extremely well. I think the pain is gone and you can see the swelling is out of it and it stayed there a long time. But he's running well, and Brayden's one of those guys who's not going to complain. You're never going to know. You're going to have to look, you're going to have to pry it out of him. He's a good human being.”

There are no hard feelings among friends and rivals, either. Winning a position slot is like winning a game: the singular goal. Nothing personal.

“If they're good people they're not going to take it off the field,” Lichtenberg said of friend/enemy dual status. “You just can't worry about it in that sense.”