LINCOLN — Instead of leaping to his feet, throwing the bones or celebrating, Blake Lawrence took inventory Saturday night.

The Nebraska linebacker had just crashed into Florida Atlantic quarterback Rusty Smith. The roar of the crowd told him that Smith's pass had fallen incomplete.

But with the banging of helmet to helmet ...

“Before I got up and got a little rowdy and got all excited, I did a brain check,'' Lawrence said. “Everything's there? Everything's working? All right, now I can jump up and celebrate.''

You need to know all that's happened to Lawrence in the past 18 months to understand what that means. Three times, no matter the severity of the hit, the junior has walked away from contact with mild concussions.

At least for this first collision Saturday, at least for peace of mind, he wanted to make sure everything was OK in the attic.

“I've fought a little bit with it,'' he said. “There are some times where I'll hit someone and I'll have to immediately say, ‘How am I doing?' Kind of a test to see if the mind's still working, and it is.''

Lawrence put it behind him after that first hit. Before he was done he had made a career-high six tackles and shaken some of the demons following him around since he confronted the reality last spring that his football career could be over.

“It was great,'' he said. “It was just kind of a worry-free start to the season, because I just had no care in the world.

“Coach (Mike) Ekeler before the game came up to me and just said, ‘Imagine: Four months ago we didn't know if you'd be out here ever again, and here you are going into your first start of the season. Let's make the best of it. Play each game like it's your last.' That's kind of the mentality you have to take.''

Ekeler won't even discuss the matter, saying he's superstitious. “I don't know what you're talking about,'' the NU linebackers coach says with a wry smile.

But it's very real to Lawrence and his family.

A steady rise in concussions has led manufacturers to design helmets aimed at prevention. Lawrence wears the Xenith X1, which provides “shock absorbers” rather than the typical in-helmet padding.

“The new helmet's working,'' Lawrence said.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pounder from Shawnee Mission, Kan., and his family started doing some research after his third concussion, the result of a collision with NU center Jacob Hickman in spring practice. The other concussions happened last season at Kansas State and during spring practice in 2008.

Rumors started flying that Lawrence was finished. He heard them.

Some members of the Husker coaching staff even told him if they were in his situation they might think about stepping away. He was told he had a place on the staff immediately if he wanted it.

“At one point it was mentioned to me that, hey, you may not be able to play again,'' Lawrence said. “I couldn't believe that — I wasn't ready to believe that — and just did whatever I could to get cleared and approved.”

Lawrence has run the gamut of MRIs, CT scans and neuro-psychological tests. He's under orders to see the athletic training staff immediately if something doesn't feel right in a game or practice. He lives with the understanding that athletes who have had at least one concussion are more prone than others to have another.

And there's plenty to protect in the head of Lawrence, an Academic All-Big 12 player who is on track to graduate in 2½ years with a business degree and start on his master's in January.

“He loves the game, and there's still some things he wants to do at Nebraska,'' said Michael Lawrence, his father. “But there is a real concern there with anything involving his mental abilities, because that's an absolute strength for him. That's where his future will come from.''

Michael Lawrence said the family feel Blake is in good hands with an NU medical staff that has been heavily involved with concussion studies. He said the football staff has conveyed genuine concern with his son rather than just trying to hurry him back into action.

Michael Lawrence said there was no indication before his NU days that Lawrence was susceptible to concussions.

“He didn't have any concussions in high school,” the player's father said, “and he was known as a hard-hitting and aggressive player.”

Michael Lawrence saw Blake play with that same style Saturday night as Nebraska beat Florida Atlantic 49-3. He looked confident starting next to redshirt freshmen Sean Fisher and Will Compton at linebacker.

Fisher was happy for Lawrence. As his roommate, he saw Lawrence stay positive and upbeat even though his playing future at one time was dependent on the right results on medical tests.

“I think it would be really hard,'' Fisher said. “It's one thing if you have an injury that you can see and feel, that you know you can't play with. It would be a lot harder, for me at least, feeling like I'd be all right and having something like that.''

It's a lot to put on Lawrence, but he said he refuses to play with fear.

“At 20 years old, you're coming to the University of Nebraska to play football, and that's your main concern,'' Lawrence said. “But when a situation like this happens, you do have to really take a step back and say, ‘This is about health. This is about my future.'

“Every play could be my last, every game could be my last. It's kind of a weird situation. I try not to think like that, really, but if you use it as motivation it's not a bad thing.”

Contact the writer:

444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com

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