NFL Draft: Despite setbacks Gunn ready for draft

Editor’s note: This is part five of The Pitt News’ series of profiles on the… Editor’s note: This is part five of The Pitt News’ series of profiles on the eight Panthers who are entering the NFL Draft, which takes place this weekend in New York.

Adam Gunn wants to help.

When the former Pitt linebacker broke his neck in Pitt’s season opener two years ago against Bowling Green, he stayed with the team to help younger players fill in for him.

When the communications major, who’s finishing up his master’s in public administration, didn’t find himself on the football field or in the classroom, he worked with nonprofit organizations to help kids and give back to the community.

When the NFL Draft begins Thursday, Gunn hopes for a chance to help a team win a Super Bowl.

The most likely way Gunn sees that happening, at least early in his career, is on special teams while trying to work his way into getting playing time as a linebacker.

“That’s how I earned my position at Pitt,” Gunn said. “That’s what I plan to do at the next level. When you’re a next-level guy, that’s what you have to do.”

In his first two seasons as a Panther, Gunn primarily played on special teams, appearing in 11 games his freshman season and 12 the year after that.

“He was very hardworking, and he wanted to do everything he could to make him and the team better,” Charles Partridge, a former Pitt coach, said.

Partridge is now Wisconsin’s defensive line and specialists coach, but he held various coaching positions at Pitt from 2003-07, including special teams coordinator and linebackers coach.

“He worked hard to increase his knowledge of the game,” Partridge said. “He came in and watched extra film — more than anyone else I can remember.”

After starting all 12 games at linebacker during his junior season, Gunn went into his senior season expected to do the same, but his journey took a detour when he collided with teammate and fellow linebacker Scott McKillop in the opening game Aug. 30, 2008.

Gunn can only recall the play because he went back and watched highlights.

“The next thing I can remember is, I was in the locker room about a half hour later,” he said. “There’s a big period where I can’t remember anything.”

He sat out the rest of that season, and doctors told him he might never play again, but he stayed around the team to help his replacements.

Gunn said he helped the younger players with basic schemes and told them how to help make the game slow down a bit.

“You would think that his career was over [after the neck injury],” Central Michigan defensive coordinator Joe Tumpkin, who was Pitt’s linebackers coach for the past two seasons, said. “You saw what his passion was and what the game meant for him.”

Eventually, Gunn was granted a sixth year of eligibility. He participated in spring practice before last season but wasn’t cleared for full contact until the summer.

It was difficult for Gunn, who said hitting is one of his favorite aspects of football, but once he was cleared for takedown, he had no time to be tentative.

“Everyone else put more emphasis on it than I did,” he said. “When you’re out there on the field, you don’t have time to think, ‘Oh, I broke my neck. I can’t hit that guy.’ The game just moves too fast.”

Gunn finished his senior season third on the team in tackles (77), third in sacks (5.0) and sixth in tackles for a loss (7.5). He was named to the all-Big East first team.

But maybe most importantly, he had no lingering damage from the neck injury.

“He’s one of the toughest players I’ve ever been around,” Pitt defensive end Greg Romeus said. “You see a guy like that just pushing everything for the team — that gives you motivation to go out there and play if you’re hurt.”

Getting a sixth year not only allowed Gunn to partake in the Panthers’ 19-17 victory in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, Pitt’s first Bowl win since 2002, but it also allowed him to get his master’s in public administration with a focus in nonprofit management.

Gunn said he has worked as a minor consultant with a nonprofit organization, but he declined to go into further detail.

“That’s not important. What is important is the work,” he said. “Even if I don’t make the NFL, or don’t play very long, I plan on giving back. I’m excited to start my career.”

Of course, he wouldn’t mind another detour in the NFL.

Gunn thinks his degrees and work have helped him improve as a football player.

“I’ve basically got a master’s degree in leadership,” he said, adding that he thinks his strengths are his ability to break down game film and an understanding for what opposing teams will do.

But he can still improve on some things, such as his ability to be all over the field.

“The more you’re able to cover the field sideline to sideline, the more you’re going to succeed in the NFL,” he said.

Most rankings on Gunn are conflicting.

CBS Sports’ NFLDraftScout.com has Gunn rated No. 52 out of the 141 interior linebackers in the draft.

NFLDraftBible.com has him ranked No. 29, DraftAce.com has him at No. 17 and The Sporting News’ The Trenches, its NFL blog, has Gunn at No. 38.

Gunn’s agent, Tim Dawson, who has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Pitt, said he thinks Gunn will be a third-day draft pick, meaning he’ll be picked somewhere in rounds four through seven.

But Gunn said he isn’t concerned with any of that.

“I never look into the future,” Gunn said. “[Making the NFL] is always a goal and a dream, but it hasn’t set in yet. It won’t set in until you get that phone call.”

So this Thursday — or Friday or Saturday — when Gunn is watching the draft with his family in North Carolina, where he’ll be for a relative’s wedding, he won’t be concerned with who might be ahead of him on a depth chart or how things would’ve played out if he didn’t collide with McKillop.

No, he’s perfectly content with how things have played out so far.

“When I broke my neck, that was an ultimate low — not knowing if I’d ever play football again,” he said. “It was all worth it. If I could break my neck all over again to get where I am now, I’d do it.”