AMES, Iowa (AP) — Jake Knott knows his coach is right. He should take a break once in a while, sit for a spell, catch his breath.

Problem is, the Iowa State linebacker hates missing even one play. The thought of sitting on the bench is almost enough to make him ill. It's simply not in his makeup to watch.

"No matter if we're winning or we're losing, I don't want to get taken out," Knott said. "I like to be in there the entire time. I don't want to miss a rep in practice, I don't want to miss a rep in a game. There's no worse feeling than that."

Knott, a junior, played almost every snap on defense last year and would have played offense, too, if the coaches had let him. And he wasn't just taking up space.

Linebackers are supposed to make tackles and Knott made a bunch of them, roaming the field to rack up 130, which put him second in the Big 12 and 12th in the country. He led the team with four interceptions, forced four fumbles, recovered a fumble and recorded a sack.

"Football is such a game of opportunities and chances," Knott said. "They might not run your way one time or they might run your way every single time. You've really just got to do as much as you can with the opportunities that are given to you."

A photo snapped during Iowa State's game against Nebraska last year captured Knott's ability and determination perfectly. Two Nebraska players are trying to block him. Both appear to be holding him. Yet Knott has slipped between them and is bearing down on the quarterback.

"He's a leader," Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads said. "He was elected captain after just completing his true sophomore season by his peers. I think that is awfully representative of what they think about him. He was nominated for Big 12 defensive player of the year by coaches in this league. That tells you what other people think about him."

With fellow junior A.J. Klein on the other side of the field, Iowa State has one of the league's better linebacker duos. Klein made 111 tackles last fall and intercepted three passes. He doesn't like to sit, either, much to the despair of defensive coordinator Wally Burnham, who coaches the linebackers.

"They're going to be in there most of the time," Burnham said. "But we need to get them out once in a while."

The hang-up is if they do come out, who replaces them?

"They're so vital," Burnham said. "They're 240-pound kids that are smart and know how to play football."

Knott wants so desperately to be a part of things that he hardly missed any team activity after breaking his right arm in April just before the spring game. He had surgery on a Friday and was back in the weight room the following Monday.

"I came straight from surgery to practice because I can't stand not being around the team," he said. "I felt like I really needed to be there. Being a leader, you can't just skip something like that."

Asked earlier this month if Knott was fully recovered from his injury, Rhoads deadpanned: "He might have been fully recovered three days after surgery."

Rhoads has a special feeling for Knott because he was the first recruit to commit after Rhoads was hired in December of 2008. For Knott, it was a no-brainer.

Knott had attracted little attention during his senior season at Waukee High School, just west of Des Moines. His best offer was from Northern Iowa — to play baseball. When Rhoads came along, Knott jumped at the chance to play in the Big 12.

"He was one of the few guys that really believed in me coming from high school," he said. "That alone really set me at ease, and then I came and talked to him for the first time and saw how great of a person he was and how personable he was and how passionate he was about Iowa State and just the game of football itself.

"It really made my decision extremely easy. To have a guy like him be here, it's an inspiration every single day. He just gets you excited to go play football."