If Barrett Ruud is talking about how a linebacker goes about preparing himself to play and staying that way, it's probably worth listening.Â
After all, Ruud followed up his record-setting Nebraska football career by appearing in all but one of the first 88 games of his NFL career. He missed one game in six seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then played the first eight in 2011 for Tennessee before missing four of five with a groin injury and eventually ending up on injured reserve.
That kind of longevity doesn’t happen by accident.
That kind of longevity is something for any player to strive for, and, in Ruud’s mind, finding the key to it or at least something similar is the top priority for talented Nebraska redshirt freshman inside linebacker Nick Henrich.
“No. 1 is Nick’s got to stay healthy. I think that’s the biggest thing for him,†Ruud, the fourth-year NU inside linebackers coach said Monday. “He’s a really natural football player, really intelligent, loves the game, he’s a great teammate. His No. 1 deal is developing a routine that keeps him healthy, first and foremost.
“If he stays on the field, he’s going to be a productive player for us.â€
Henrich, a 6-foot-4, 225-pounder from Omaha, showed as much last year despite a position change and all of the weirdness that came with 2020. He began the season as an outside linebacker because of NU’s thin depth but moved back inside, where he had begun his career when Collin Miller suffered a career-ending neck injury against Illinois. Henrich quickly found rotational work and led Nebraska with 23 tackles over the final two games of the season.
“He’s really instinctive,†Ruud said. “I think to play inside, you’ve got to have great eyes, great awareness and just an understanding for angles. That’s his most natural spot. I think he’s a talented enough athlete to play outside when he needs to, but I think he’s most natural inside.â€
Henrich had a good winter conditioning and then was one of Nebraska’s top standouts over five weeks in the spring.
“Through the spring, I thought Nick played as well as anybody on the football team,†defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said Monday. “So far, through four practices, he’s continued on that path.â€
A big part of that is health.
Henrich dealt with a knee injury late in his high school career at Burke and then jumped straight into work with Nebraska as a midyear enrollee in January 2019, but has since dealt with both shoulder and knee injuries.
He got healthy enough in 2019 to play against Wisconsin in November, but that was his only appearance. He was injured again before the 2020 season but got healthy enough to play in seven of Nebraska’s eight games.
Now, he’s strung together several months of being available, though Henrich was held out of the Red-White Spring Game.
“It was frustrating; once you’re over one thing, then you have another,†Henrich said of injuries this spring. “That was really difficult, but now that I’m healthy, I’m really just grateful to be healthy and you’ve always just got to stay ready because you never know when you’re going to get your shot.â€
It’s not the kind of thing fans will ever see, but Ruud said once you’ve dealt with injuries, you’ve got to spend a lot of maintenance time to help minimize the chance of recurrences.
“For example, he’s had a shoulder before, he’s had a knee before,†Ruud said. “There’s little ‘pre-hab’ things that I think you just have to develop. I’ll take me for example. I had little tweaks before, and I developed a routine to kind of check those off a list as I’m getting ready for practice, and I think that helps you. There’s some things you can’t control. You step on somebody’s foot and roll an ankle, that is what it is.
“But I think when you’ve had little nicks here and there, you’ve got to learn how to take care of those and you’ve got to develop a routine, warm up properly. After practice, whether it’s in the weight room or the training room, you do a shoulder routine that protects your shoulders. I think those little things add up after awhile.â€
By all accounts, Henrich has put together a healthy winter, spring and summer. Now comes the task of carrying it through a rugged schedule in the Big Ten.
“He’s doing pretty good so far,†Ruud said Monday. “I mean, four practices in. It’s not 16 years and 200 straight games or whatever yet, but no, he’s doing good so far. He’s a guy that loves the game, too. He doesn’t want to miss a rep, so I think a big thing for him is developing a routine that really works well for him.â€
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