Sam Simmons grabbed onto the shoulders of his teammates — Torri Stuckey and Vincent Cartaya. Then he bent his neck down, shaking his Northwestern helmet sideways. He stomped his feet restlessly, right and left.

Before NU’s season-opening kickoff Aug. 31 at Ryan Field, its special teams players huddled along their sideline. Northern Illinois won the toss but decided to kick. Inevitably, it was time for Simmons to take the field — to return the first play of the Wildcats’ 2000 season.

Simmons was nervous — more so than any other men in purple and white. Simmons had not been clobbered in a real-game situation since a hit cost him half of last season. In its only conference victory last season, NU upended Iowa on Oct. 16, but the price of winning was high, as the team lost Simmons for the rest of the season.

On a reverse, Simmons was nailed on the way to the sideline, fracturing his collarbone. NU’s most talented receiver and punt returner was carted off the field.

So standing on the sideline before this year’s season opener, Simmons’ natural instincts told him to lean on to something, someone. The junior looked smaller, more fragile than his 5-foot-10, 197-pound frame implied.

“I was nervous the whole game,” Simmons said. “My leg felt funny. My body felt funny. I was just scared about everything — completely nervous. Everything just felt funny. I didn’t feel fast. I really didn’t feel confident about the game. I really tried to relax the whole game.”

That attempt to relax turned into 211 yards of total offense that night, earning Simmons Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

In the first three games of the Cats’ (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) season, Simmons has put his talents on display, both as a receiver and returner. He leads the Cats in three categories — kick return yards (167), punt return yards (147) and receiving yards (125).

“Maybe that’s why they couldn’t catch him,” NU coach Randy Walker quipped about Simmons’ season-opening nerves. “I mean, I’ve seen those sides (of him being nervous). He was out for a long time. We don’t really go a lot of full-go in practice, so I’m sure it took a couple of shots, hits to knock that rust off.

“He’s our guy. He just gives us so many things. Big returns, special teams, he’s just a real special player.”

But Simmons’ shoulder injury, the most painful and threatening one in his life, took its toll. Simmons broke his wrist twice — once in junior high and the other as a sophomore in high school — but had never been hobbled into a hospital for surgery.

For eight weeks from the end of the Iowa game to through Christmas break, Simmons had to wait for the post-surgery pain to dissipate.

It didn’t.

So Simmons changed his prescription and sat on his couch instead of lifting weights for another six weeks. Spring football was just around the corner.

But the pain still lingered, and he missed spring ball. Finally, at the beginning of June, Simmons returned to the gridiron.

“I was far behind,” Simmons recalled. “My bench is down 30 pounds from last year. My squat is about the same. But everything else is mediocre because I just missed so much. There’s a lot of things I couldn’t do upper-body wise.

“That’s why every practice and every game, I’m just trying to get back to the groove. I’m feeling not as fast and as strong as I should be.”

Simmons clocked the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds back in June, so he’s got the speed. And adding ball-handling skills and agility after the catch makes Simmons’ spot atop the depth chart secure.

“I love throwing to all the receivers but I think the most special thing about Sam is that he’s the type of receiver that you can throw a 5-yard route and he can turn it into an 80-yard touchdown,” NU quarterback Zak Kustok said. “He’s just one of those guys that makes things happen.

“I think he does everything he can to get the most out of what he has. There’s not many 6-foot-4 receivers that I would trade for Sam.”

The same goes for the other NU players. Throughout the recovery process, Simmons felt both the support and expectations from his teammates.

“Everybody’s tried to stay behind me and keep me going,” Simmons said. “They’ve been patting me on the butt a lot — asking me if everything’s all right.”

So far, so good. He has no doubts about his capabilities., and he has no worries about Big Ten cornerbacks banging their helmets straight into his right shoulder.

“I know I haven’t been doing (avoiding hits) in the past three games, so I know I won’t start now,” he said. “I don’t even think about it now.”

Back to the season-opener. Northern Illinois has the football. Fourth-and-25 with almost eight minutes left in the third. Simmons waits patiently for the punt in NU territory.

“Every time I get the ball, I’ve got a lot of pride,” Simmons says. “I think anybody can do kick returns — It’s hard to return punts. It’s much more challenging.”

Simmons returns the punt 63 yards to the Huskies 14 yard line. Four plays later, NU converts for a touchdown.

This time he didn’t need anyone else’s shoulders to lean on.