Schmitt was an unheralded walk-on when he first came to Morgantown in 2005. He had a nice career at Wisconsin-River Falls, but wanted something more out of his time on the football field. He could have gone anywhere in the country, only because he sent out recruiting tapes of himself to nearly every school.
West Virginia and former head coach Rich Rodriguez just happened to take a chance on him. Lucky for Schmitt, Rodriguez and all of Mountaineer Nation, it paid off.
Schmitt quickly garnered a reputation for being the hardest-working player on the practice field. He rose up the depth chart and by 2007, he was part of the best backfield in all of college football alongside Steve Slaton and Pat White.