ISU linebacker Luke Knott can’t pinpoint a moment in time when his hip started to hurt. It just seemed to be the normal wear and tear from routine football drills.

Little did Knott know, the small twinge of pain he consistently felt in ISU football’s 2013 fall camp would lead him to three hip injuries that spanned two years and almost cut his young career short.

It all started at the beginning of his redshirt freshman year. Knott was coming off his initial season on the sideline and showed promise to both start and make an impact as a highly sought-after defensive back out of Missouri.

In high school, he was ranked the 14th-best recruit out of Missouri. His brother, Jake Knott, paved the way for him. Jake eventually went on to play for the Baltimore Ravens after his time at Iowa State.

During 2013 fall camp, Luke Knott started to feel a small pain at the front of his hip.

“I felt [my hip] tweak up a bit,” Knott said. “I didn’t really think much of it at the time. It was just soreness.”

So Knott tried to play through it. The twinge of pain turned sharp and excruciating before the second game of the season. To mask it, team doctors gave him a shot to lube the joint and make it more comfortable. It worked for a few weeks until the pain came back.

The team sent him to multiple doctors to diagnose his chronic hip pain, and the news wasn’t good.

Knott tore his hip labrum. He had to have season-ending surgery.

Surgery wasn’t anything new to Knott. He went through multiple knee surgeries during his high school career. The doctors gave him a timetable to be ready by next season’s fall camp.

Knott felt ready to go.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to get this thing fixed. Let’s go to rehab. Let’s rock and roll by fall camp and be ready,’” Knott said.

The worst part wasn’t the pain after surgery. It wasn’t the hours spent stretching and massaging. It wasn’t that he couldn’t practice on the field anymore.

It was a bike.

For the first eight weeks of Knott’s rehab, he spent two hours a day sitting on an exercise bike in Iowa State’s training room, attempting to nurse his hip back to health.

At that point, his original enthusiasm was stymied. His goal was a distant light at the end of the tunnel, seemingly out of reach.

“When we first starting rehabbing it, you’re so far away from your ultimate goal,” Knott said. “If you’re not so mentally tough, it can really wear you down.”

It wasn’t all bad for Knott, though. Mark Coberley, associate athletics director for sports medicine, gave Knott movies to watch while he was on the bike. Knott would mostly turn it to the cable channels and watch Batman movie marathons through his rigorous exercise hours.

Knott explains his time on the bike as the worst part of his rehab just because of the grueling hours he had to spend pedaling. He wanted to use that energy on the field with his teammates. 

Knott eventually got off the bike after his designated eight weeks. When he did, he and the trainers went to work. He could be seen in the pool and on the field, trying to get his full range of motion back.

It worked. Knott was ready for 2014 fall camp.

It seemed like Knott’s recovery had gone well. In his redshirt sophomore season, he played in all 12 games, starting eight of them and finishing third on the team with 74 tackles.

But around the sixth or seventh game of the season, the familiar feeling of pain crept back into his hip. The tough-nosed Knott tried to push it to the back of his mind.

“I just kept telling myself that it was general soreness because I didn’t want to have to through it again,” Knott said. “I didn’t want to alert anybody that I’m going through it.”

He finally caved near the end of the season and saw the team doctors. His hip had over-healed itself. The calcification to regrow his hip bone after Knott’s first surgery actually created a mess. There was a lump of bone and scar tissue.

It doesn’t happen often. Knott said the doctors told him it happens to roughly one in 1,000 patients.

“It was a freak thing,” Knott said. “And it just so happened to me.”

Knott wound up back on the bike. Although he rode it for one hour per day, it still wasn’t the ideal situation. The bike was helping him get back to prime form, but it was also boosting his motivation. 

He returned for 2015 spring practice a new player, ready to jump in and impress the coaches. Knott felt he needed to prove that he could live up to the promise of his freshman self. 

He barely got the chance. About six or seven days in, he felt a different type of pain. It was still in his hip, but it was in the back rather than in the front or groin area.

Knott expected the worse. This could be another labrum tear that could threaten his college football career.

“How can something like this happen three times in a row?” Knott thought.

This time, the doctors struggled to find the reason for the pain. Rumors swirled that it could be a career-threatening injury.

It confused the doctors as much as it confused Knott. The team decided to forego surgery and instead rest the hip and wait to see how it progressed. 

Knott just rested it and rehabbed it over the summer. It seems to have worked. So far, the pain hasn’t returned.

“Now, I’m just going until I can’t go anymore,” Knott said.

Now that Knott is pain free, he is delivering on the promise that he showed in his redshirt freshman year. While linebacker Levi Peters is seeing limited time on the field due to a rib injury, Knott has been enjoying more playing time. He’s tallied 12 tackles in six games and one tackle for a loss.

Through all the pain in his hips, Knott has found a brotherhood with Peters, his fellow linebacker. Both play the same position, and both of them have dealt with adversity due to injuries.

“I think of him as a mentor for me,” Peters said. “I think of him as a brother to me. We’ve been in the same position ever since we’ve got here, and we’ve learned from each other. We’ve competed. If he starts, I’m right there. Go out there, and whoop some ass.”

Although his numbers may not stand out among others on a stat sheet, the ISU coaching staff has certainly taken notice.

“Luke Knott has [exceeded] my expectations,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads. “I think he’s playing the best football that he’s played as an Iowa State Cyclone.”

Knott knows how far he’s come to get this point and has no desire to go backwards any longer. He’ll never forget where he was — riding a bike while watching Batman. 

Every time Knott walks back into the training room to do a routine ankle taping or anything else, he looks at the bike and remembers. That’s all he needs.

“You do a lot of thinking when you ride a bike for two hours, man,” Knott said. “If definitely signifies a low point in my life. That gives me the motivation I need.”