CEDAR FALLS, Ia. – They never saw Karter Schult coming.
As a defensive end for Northern Iowa making a bee-line to the quarterback, that’s good. But as an unheralded recruit from Tripoli, Iowa, population 1,313, it was frustrating.
“What sets him apart is he knew that he could go play somewhere big,” said Tom Nuss, the football coach at Tripoli High School, located about 30 minutes north of UNI. “I think that kind of added fuel to the fire when nobody else even acted interested.
“It made him want to go prove something.”
The Panthers were the only NCAA Division I program to offer Schult a scholarship, and he returned the favor by developing into a 6-foot-4, 269-pound wrecking ball, on pace to obliterate his own school record when it comes to tackles for loss in a season.