Taking hits is defensive tackle Daniel Noble’s job, but one blind-side hit in the first half of the Oct. 16 Iowa State football game packed a punch he wasn’t expecting.

The University College freshman remembers chasing down Iowa State’s quarterback before an offensive lineman brought him down. The next couple of plays are a foggy blur, Noble said, recalling the moments leading up to a physical and neurological assessment that diagnosed him with a concussion.

Noble’s concussion was one of 12 total concussions for the Sooner football team in the 2010 season that resulted in six missed games, 53 missed practices and 222 missed days, according to an OU report submitted to the NCAA and Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention.

After the hit in the Iowa State game, Noble said he remembers feeling disoriented and unsure of what he was supposed to be doing. He said he turned to teammate Adrian Taylor while still on the field, and Taylor got the attention of OU trainers.

At that time trainers and team physicians led Noble off the field and performed and assessed his cognitive function, memory and limb movement.

He had an X-ray immediately after the game, and eventually had two MRIs, an EEG, a computer exam that tested his reflexes and memory and a written test that examined his ability to memorize sequences.

Noble was out for the rest of the season recovering from a concussion. He underwent repeated tests, physical and mental examinations and rehabilitation.

The last two months of the semester were particularly difficult, Noble said. He hadn’t expected his concussion to keep him out of the game for so long. Once it became apparent that he wouldn’t be back on the field the rest of the season, he focused on his schoolwork and recovery process.

“It just felt like time went by real fast. Like it felt like days and it had been weeks,” Noble said. “You just kind of lose track of time. I was just trying to keep up with my school work and that was it.”

The recovery time from a concussion varies among individual cases, said Brock Schnebel, OU Athletics head physician. Because concussions are a risk in any athletic sport, a routine procedure is in place to assess the severity of the injury.

Schnebel said he and a team of physicians and trainers first make sure athletes are safe with whatever cognitive deficit they may have and are able to breathe and function properly.

Next, once the concussion has been diagnosed, athletes are protected from loud noises or other stimuli. A gradual, repeated succession of tests track athletes’ recovery progress, and athletes’ teams also work to ensure they are keeping up with their academics.

“They may have some cognitive function that slows down their ability to take tests and function academically,” Schnebel said.

Noble said he was able to maintain a high grade-point average, but simple tasks like working on a computer were difficult due to a high sensitivity to light. He also said frequent throbbing headaches persisted throughout his recovery time.

Physicians and trainers associated with Sooner football have been learning more about the causes and effects of concussions that occur on the football team.

The Head Impact Telemetry System is a technology research tool that allows OU football trainers and physicians to analyze forces that may result in concussions. The HIT System gathers data from a tiny computer sensor in a helmet, and allows trainers on the sidelines to monitor the impact of certain hits taken in a practice or game.

The technology is a research tool, and not an instrument for diagnosis, head football trainer Scott Anderson said. The team implemented the technology in 2004 to gather more information about concussive forces.

“It isn’t going to dictate to us that we hold a player out, and it isn’t going to help us particularly in our return-to-play decision,” Anderson said. “It’s really a research tool, and we have used it for that. We take our data and put it into a body of data, just seeing what we can learn as much as anything at this point.”

Noble is back in the game this spring. He began practice once classes resumed after spring break. He credits the football training staff with his recovery.

“They held me out when, of course, us players want to get back in there,” he said. “But they told me I couldn’t. I listened to them and I’m thankful for that.”

He also said the athlete’s academic center psychiatrist gave him lots of support, since being out of practice and away from his teammates was difficult. Though the nature of football puts Noble at risk for other injuries, including another concussion, he said he’s ready to be back in the game.

“I’m not gonna change the way I play,” Noble said.