Owen Schmitt’s recruitment is a story of trial and error.

Perhaps the toughest, strongest Mountaineer pound-per-pound of his era, it’s hard to imagine Schmitt anywhere else other than Morgantown but that was once the case.

The bruising fullback’s early years were spent with his grandparents in Gilman, Wisconsin and as a child Schmitt underwent an operation to reduce a cleft lip and palate. He overcame adversity and learned a great life lesson in the process that life owed him nothing.