LAWRENCE — Kansas football entered spring ball earlier this year with a number of questions about its offensive line.

Both Dominick Puni, last season’s regular starter at left tackle, and Mike Novitsky, the starting center, embarked on professional careers. Ar’maj Reed-Adams, a regular starter at left guard, transferred to Texas A&M. As new offensive coordinator/assistant head coach Jeff Grimes would point out, not negatively just observationally, there were a lot of unknowns as they set out to discover who would start and more.

But while senior Bryce Cabeldue’s return as the starting right tackle provided one answer, albeit as someone who is coming back from an ankle injury that led him to miss last year’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl victory, Cabeldue’s presence is providing more than just that. Despite not being the most vocal person growing up, or even when he arrived on campus ahead of the 2020 season, he’s assumed more of a leadership role this year. He’s someone who’s not just being talked about as stepping up, but someone who showcased that in practice.

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“(Director of sports performance) Coach (Matt Gildersleeve) and I, we had lots of conversations,” Cabeldue said toward the end of spring ball in April. “People are looking up to me. I need to be one of the guys that goes out there and is talking and encouraging because there are people that already look up to me and if I’m the one that’s just — I see something and I’m not saying something, I’m kind of like down, not talking, then everyone’s going to do that and we’re going to have kind of a boring environment whenever we’re in practice.”

Cabeldue allowed that, while Scott Fuchs was still his offensive line coach, there was sort of a discussion about him playing center. But after Fuchs took a job in the NFL, and was replaced by Daryl Agpalsa, that never seemed to materialize into anything. Cabeldue, who noted there weren’t really any conversations about moving to left tackle either, mused that there was a desire to ensure he was comfortable in one spot as he looked to get fully healthy.

Agpalsa has received rave reviews from both Grimes and Lance Leipold since his arrival with the program, where he reunited with a head coach in Leipold he’s worked with in the past. And Cabeldue was quick to be effusive in his praise for his new position coach, too. Cabeldue, who Agpalsa described as “a dude,” highlighted how open-minded Agpalsa has been as Agpalsa has acclimated to a new group.

It’s Agpalsa who’s talked in depth about how leadership is a skill, and something they all have to continue to work on. Even though Agpalsa acknowledged he might not have been a great leader when he was Cabeldue’s age, or Cabeldue’s teammates’ ages, there’s always progress that can be made. It’s about standing up for what’s right rather than what’s comfortable and convenient.

Leipold pointed to Cabeldue as someone who’s an example of how a player can grow up over the course of their career. Leipold’s seen Cabeldue become more confident, in part because he’s continued to be someone who plays a lot. Cabeldue, from Leipold’s perspective, has embraced the understanding that he’s a veteran on this team.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I call him father time because he’s an old man, right?” Agpalsa said. “He’s probably going to hate that I said that out loud, but I’ll tell you what man he’s got a wealth of experience and a wealth of knowledge. And I tell him all the time, like, ‘Repetition is the mother of all learning, experience is to follow.’ And he’s got a ton of experience and a ton of reps and he plays at a high level.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Bryce Cabeldue has emerged as a leader within the Kansas football team