Jake Knott is on the mend after dislocating his shoulder twice in Iowa State’s Oct. 8 loss to Baylor.

A week later, coach Paul Rhoads admitted to the media that the junior linebacker and co-captain had not been practicing for two weeks due to various ailments aside from the shoulder injury.

“It’s bothered me a little bit the last few games, but it’s not really something you think about when you’re out there,” Knott said. “So you’ve just got to get through it and work past that part of the game.”

Knott has since returned to full speed and said Monday that he is feeling the best that he has since the Baylor game.

Knott recorded a career-high 18 tackles in the loss to Baylor, but only managed seven total tackles combined in the two games since.

“You can notice a little bit more from the outside point of view — his style of play, he still tries to play hard, he’ll come up and run and hit, but I think he may be a little hesitant sometimes,” said linebacker Matt Tau’fo’ou.

In Knott’s limited action, Tau’fo’ou has “quietly had a very solid senior year,” Rhoads said at his weekly news conference on Monday.

Tau’fo’ou notched a career-high 10 tackles on Saturday in the Cyclones’ 33-17 loss to then-No. 17 Texas A&M.

“Whenever you get the opportunity, you’ve got to take advantage of it,” Tau’fo’ou said. “Whenever you get the opportunities which you don’t know, you have to prepare as if you’re starting every day.”

As for the lack of production on paper, Knott said it is not so much his injury as it is where he finds himself in the defensive scheme.

“The last couple weeks, I haven’t really been able to be around the ball very much because I’ve been turning things back to other guys,” Knott said. “When it gets more spread open, I have more opportunity to run down plays, so that’s probably when the tackle numbers will go back up.”

Rhoads’ sideline antics not considered negative for team

At his weekly news conference on Monday, coach Rhoads said he did not see his berating of the line judge on the sideline of Saturday’s game as a distraction.

“I’m an animated guy, I’m a passionate guy,” Rhoads said. “Coaching football is my livelihood, and fighting for our football team and most importantly for our kids and the opportunity to win football games is my responsibility. I love that. I never need to apologize for who I am or how I do it, and I never will.”

When ISU football players were asked what they thought of their coach’s antics, they also viewed them as a positive.

“I like it when someone’s out there showing emotion like he does,” said defensive end Jacob Lattimer. “He’s not sitting back in the back just blending in with everybody, he’s out there with us. He’s personally out there and showing emotion and getting after it and personally I love that.”

During that game, Rhoads was seen jumping up and down, yelling at the line judge during one of Texas A&M’s scoring drives in which his team was flagged for numerous penalties.

“It’s an awesome feeling to know that he’s fighting for you [and] to know that he sees what you see and that he does think that you’re being cheated in some sort,” said quarterback Jared Barnett. “And that’s a great feeling. Coach Rhoads is a great guy and he’s always going to fight for us.”

However, when asked what he had been saying to the line judge that night, Rhoads simply replied, “I asked him where he was from.”

Improvement of the defensive line

Saturday’s three sacks by three different members of the ISU defensive line matched the number of sacks given up by Texas A&M’s offensive line all season.

For part of the game, the defensive front made things uncomfortable for A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill, a far cry from the beginning of the season when consistent pressure on the quarterback was rare.

“We’re a more mature defensive line now,” said Patrick Neal, who leads the team in sacks with 2.5. “The pass stunt games that coach [Shane] Burnham and coach [Curtis] Bray are coming up with, I feel, are helping us take advantage of protections by the offense.”

The defense held Texas A&M to one rushing yard on eight carries in the first quarter, but could not keep up the consistency meeting the Aggies’ adjustments as it gave up 247 yards on the ground for the game.

“We looked at all the breakdowns in the scoring drives that allowed them to end up in the end zone or kicking a field goal. It’s a guy out of a gap here, it’s a guy that missed an assignment here, it’s a guy that didn’t take a proper angle on a tackle, it’s a guy that didn’t wrap up on a tackle,” Rhoads said.

“So we’ve specifically addressed why those reasons all occurred and began coaching them yesterday on how not to allow it to happen again.”