Nielsen back on the prowl

IOWA CITY - Tyler Nielsen faced down two forces of nature in the last year. He shot one and considers it a trophy and lunch. The other remains a work in progress.

The 6-foot-4, 235-pound outside linebacker spent his spring break in the dirt and scrub of Arkansas, hunting wild boars. He got one, too. It was about 150 pounds, not quite big enough for the tusky trophy but it was dinner for a couple of nights.

“It's not quite like hogs up here,” Nielsen said. “It's pretty good eating, decent.”

The other force was the broken neck he suffered last October. The best Nielsen can do is “at some point.” He was first injured Oct. 16 on a hit of Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson, then played the Wisconsin game with no problems. At some point during a 37-6 victory over Michigan State, after the adrenalin wore off, the pain set in.

“There was a play with Denard Robinson, that's when it first hurt,” said Nielsen, a fifth-year senior from Humboldt. “I don't know if that's when it broke or that's what started it. That was the first pain. After that, I just wasn't thinking about it.

“I was just thinking about getting the win and playing. You have so much adrenalin when you're out there on the field. You're not really thinking about what hurts and what doesn't hurt. You're just thinking about the game.”

He didn't have it checked after the game.

“I just thought it was jammed and just a sore neck,” said Nielsen, who made 42 tackles, including 4.5 for loss last season. “I've had a sore neck before. It hurt a little bit, but it wasn't anything I thought was serious.”

Then there was Wisconsin. And Michigan State. At halftime, Nielsen went to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for an X-ray that came up negative. The fractured vertebrae couldn't be seen.

“Kicking their butt,” Nielsen said about the beginning of the Michigan State game. “Maybe the adrenalin wore off when we were up 34-6. There was probably a play where it hurt. When you're out there on the field, you're not thinking about what hurts and what doesn't.”

Eventually, you have to listen to your body.

That's not always easy. These guys are high achievers. Every one of their bedrooms at home is filled with trophies.

Team and individual goals and doing your job are the drivers for a lot of Iowa players. When Nielsen was injured, the linebacking corps was down to the nub. Freshman James Morris was already in at middle linebacker for Jeff Tarpinian (stinger). Jeremiha Hunter missed Michigan State with a knee injury. That nagged at him, too.

The starting linebackers against Michigan State included Morris and red-shirt freshman Shane DiBona.

“The young guys filled in pretty well,” Nielsen said. “It's unfortunate they had to be thrown in there so young, but they did a good job.”

Sometimes, these guys want their bodies to shut up and go along with it. When cornerback Shaun Prater discussed his bout with rhabdomyolysis last week, he said his first instinct was to push through the soreness.

Nielsen's neck finally told him it had had enough in the second quarter of the Michigan State game.

“It got to the point where I couldn't run or breathe without any pain, so I figured I better come out,” Nielsen said.

The rehabilitation wasn't horrible. Wearing a neck brace for 10 weeks was horrible. He needed CT scans to check the progress but couldn't have too many because of the radiation and the proximity of the thyroids.

The slow process dragged on for a few more weeks than Nielsen thought.

“It was like getting out of prison or something,” he said of the day he was able to peel it off for the last time.

Nielsen is doing everything in practice, including the physical stuff. No live scrimmages, but everything else is a go.

Life is back to near normal, at least normal enough to hunt wild boar in Arkansas.

The neck brace? It's still around, but, like the wild boar meat, it's not long for this world.

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