Encouraged Gifford Continues Rehabbing, Leading

Luke Gifford, still recovering from offseason hip surgery, isn’t participating in Nebraska spring football practices. A senior linebacker from Lincoln, Gifford hasn’t played since October and won’t return to the field until fall camp.

So what’s a team leader to do when he’s not 100 percent involved with team activities?

That’s what concerned Gifford as the Nebraska program began the second coaching transition of his career.

Then new strength coach Zach Duval told Gifford flat out that players looked up to Gifford, that he needed to continue to assume his leadership role in the weight room. Lifting wise, Gifford could still do most of what his teammates were doing in the winter.

“My voice still means something,” Gifford said. “They’ve allowed me to be a leader, which is really cool.”

That’s not the only cool part Gifford has discovered about Nebraska’s new coaching staff, led by head coach Scott Frost, as he watches spring practices from the sideline.

Everything you’ve been hearing and reading about competitiveness and accountability and aggressiveness?

Gifford can vouch it’s 100 percent true.

The amount of “buy-in,” he said, is different than past years. Gifford, who still speaks highly of former linebackers coach Trent Bray, is sure to point out that’s not an indictment of the previous staff.

“Everyone loved Coach (Mike) Riley and playing for Coach Riley, but there wasn’t an immediate buy-in,” Gifford said. “It’s pretty evident. Coach Frost, he demands your respect. He walks into a room, you can’t help but sit up in your chair and listen to what he has to say, you know?

“It’s just different, and I think a lot of guys have noticed that and are taking to heart what they’re saying.”

Seeing the success Frost and Co. had at UCF – taking an 0-12 program to 6-6 and 12-0 in just two seasons – made the buy-in factor easier for players, Gifford said. And with Nebraska coming off a surprising and disappointing 4-8 season, players are that much more eager to soak in everything Frost says about being tough and competitive.

“Coach Frost talks about bringing your basketball shoes with you or your cleats with you and always being ready for a game,” Gifford said. “That’s the type of competitor he wants. You’re going to start to see that. Gradually over winter workouts, you could tell with each workout we had, people were starting to change their mindset. I think we get in those games against Wisconsin and Ohio State and Michigan and those teams, you’re really going to see that side of us.”

As a redshirt in 2014, Gifford remembers the likes of Ameer Abdullah and Kenny Bell and Tommy Armstrong taking strong leadership roles and holding teammates accountable in the weight room or in offseason workouts when coaches weren’t watching. Coaches didn’t need to push. Players did.

Gifford is seeing a return to such player accountability under Frost.

“The best teams, they’re led by their players,” Gifford said. “I think that’s something really hard to change, but Coach Frost, being here in the 90s and at UCF with the success he had, they know how to change it.

“I don’t want to say the past staff didn’t know how to change it, but these guys have done it, and we’ve definitely started to lay that foundation for the accountability within the team. Sometimes I wish I could’ve been around these guys for more than a year. But to be able to start the foundation and be able to rebuild the whole thing, it’s pretty cool.”

More players are beginning to find a voice, Gifford said. In addition to Mick Stoltenberg and Ben Stille, native Nebraskans the new staff has singled out as strong leaders, the likes of Jerald Foster, Mohamed Barry and Stanley Morgan Jr. are also filling leadership roles, Gifford said.

And, of course, Gifford himself.

That’s what made last season’s slide so difficult to watch for Gifford, whose hip pain became so unbearable during the Oct. 14 Ohio State game that he didn’t play again.

“It was hard to watch,” Gifford said. “I think the hardest part was just watching the guys go through it, because you know how bad they wanted it. I see them every day in practice and how hard they work and how hard everyone competes. There were a lot of things that happened last year that these guys aren’t proud of. Everybody remembers it. Nobody’s going to forget it.”

Gifford tried to be around as much as possible, especially for the younger linebackers who had to step up in his absence.

“Tyrin Ferguson, Collin Miller – those guys had to play a lot of big snaps,” Gifford said. “They did a great job. Honestly, you can tell they did get those opportunities last year. Just watching them in spring ball, they’re completely different players.

“It’s crazy to see the jumps they’ve made in the last year, and it’s exciting. The depth we have this year compared to maybe what we’ve had in the past at linebacker is really good.”

Players are “catching on pretty fast” to the new defense under defensive coordinator Erik Chinander, Gifford said. Sticking to a 3-4 scheme after having already transition from a 4-3 defense last season helps, “but at the end of the day, defense is defense and cover-3 is cover-3,” he said.

“Obviously, there are different nuances and ways of doing things for every defense and every system, but as long as you can figure out the new terminology and group it together, then you can start picking it up fast.”

Gifford believes the overall level of aggressiveness and the way the coaches teach the defense is different than past years.

“Everything is so aggressive, and they just want you to play,” he said. “There’s no worrying about missing tackles or any of that. It’s strictly see the ball and shoot your shot. It’s ‘get after it.’ I think a lot of guys are starting to buy into that.

“Coach Chin always talks about if you’re going 100 miles an hour and the first guy misses, if everyone’s going 100 miles an hour, it doesn’t matter. As long as you make the play on your leverage and where you’re supposed to be at, then good things will happen.”

After playing in a mere four games as a sophomore, Gifford began to blossom last season, when he collected a career-high nine tackles in a season-opening victory against Arkansas State. He recorded his first career interception against Rutgers, recorded a sack against Wisconsin, but eventually succumbed to his sore hip.

“I just pretty much couldn’t do it anymore,” said Gifford, who said he severely aggravated his already sore hip on the second or third play of the Ohio State game. He tried to play the rest of the game, “but it wasn’t happening.”

Gifford eventually had surgery to mend a torn labrum in his hip and correct a hip impingement – an abnormal and wearing contact between the ball and socket of the hip joint.

 “It’s actually really common,” he said. “A lot of people have the impingements in their hips but just don’t have to deal with it. It never really causes problems. Unfortunately, I’m one of the people that has to deal with it.”

In fact, he’s dealt with it twice. Gifford has the same surgery midway through his redshirted freshman season.

“It’s been slow this time around, this being the second time,” Gifford said. “Recently, I’ve been running on the treadmill, trying to get back to full body weight, before I run on the field and stuff like that, so I probably have a couple of more weeks before I’m on the field running.”

Gifford hopes to be ready to roll for summer workouts.

“I’m pretty good,” he said. “It’s not too far off. I’ve made it through the tough part. I’m starting to do more things, so it makes it a little bit more fun.”

Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.