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WVU's Schmitt Is the Gift That Keeps on Hitting
Fullback Owen Schmitt (Fairfax High) came out of nowhere to become a star at West Virginia, including a career day in last season's bowl win.
(By Marc Serota -- Getty Images)
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Said Schmitt: "I don't understand why I get that attention. I mean, we have actual stars on this team."
Schmitt spent his life identifying himself as the underdog, and the last few years have done little to override that outlook. He grew up with his grandparents in Gilman, Wis. -- a 500-resident town without a youth football league -- and moved to live with his mother in Fairfax after eighth grade. Schmitt spent two years on junior varsity at Paul VI Catholic before transferring to Fairfax High School. He became a star running back for one of the worst teams in the AAA Liberty District, but mediocre grades and a 6-14 record as a varsity player discouraged recruiters.
After graduation, he moved back north and joined the football team at the only school that would take him: Division III Wisconsin-River Falls, a team coached by John O'Grady, an old friend of Schmitt's grandfather.
During the team's first contact practice, Schmitt bruised three experienced linebackers during a blocking drill, and O'Grady blew his whistle. He pulled the freshman over to the sideline and asked Schmitt to sit out, so that he wouldn't hurt any of his teammates. Then O'Grady moved Schmitt to running back, where he amassed 1,063 yards as a freshman.
"It was so clear he didn't belong here," O'Grady said. "He loved hitting, loved contact, more than any kid I've ever had. After that first season, I told him: 'You've got bigger places to be. Go find them.' "
So Schmitt came home for winter break and started making road trips with his videotape. A coach at Maryland told him to "stay at River Falls," Schmitt said. Another school sent Schmitt's tape back to his mailbox in Fairfax, unopened.
One day before he flew back to Wisconsin for the second semester, resigned to a Division III career, he made the trip with his mother to West Virginia. He handed the tape to an assistant coach, who eventually passed it along to Rodriguez. A former walk-on himself, Rodriguez watched the tape and decided his scout team could use a gritty fullback. A few weeks later, West Virginia contacted Schmitt in Wisconsin and offered him a chance to pay his own way and join the practice squad as a walk-on in 2004.
"Anybody who watched him play that first year on the scout team knew he wasn't going to stay there," said Stewart, the assistant coach. "He was tearing it up, making our guys look silly. All of us coaches kind of looked at each other like, you know, 'Wow.' It was kind of like that feeling of just winning the lottery."
