Owen Schmitt

Owen Schmitt (born February 13, 1985) is a former American football fullback.

A walk-on to the Mountaineers' squad, Schmitt became the starter that fall as a sophomore for the 2005 season and it was a breakout year.

He was active as both a rusher and as a primary blocker.

At the midpoint of the season, freshman Steve Slaton earned the starting spot at halfback, and with quarterback Pat White at the helm, Schmitt and Slaton teamed up to make one of the best rushing tandems in the NCAA.

Schmitt totaled 380 yards and two touchdowns himself, while Slaton was a huge beneficiary of his blocking, recording 1,128 yards and seventeen touchdowns.

In 2006, Slaton, White, and Schmitt were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated's regional "Big Man On Campus" article.

With high expectations, the Mountaineers finished with an 11-2 record.

Schmitt rushed for 351 yards and seven touchdowns on the season, and also caught one touchdown pass.

His blocking helped Slaton to another phenomenal year—1,744 yards.

Schmitt's biggest game was the come-from-behind Gator Bowl win against Georgia Tech, where he filled in for the injured Slaton and rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns.

Schmitt earned National Strength and Conditioning Association Strength All-American honors at the end of the season, as he bulked up from 245 pounds to 260.

After the season, he was named "College football's top workout freak" by ESPN.com.

In 2007, his senior year, Schmitt was arguably one of the best fullbacks in the nation.

He also took many snaps at tight end in spring practice, where head coach Rich Rodriguez lined him up occasionally.

Schmitt's first big game of the season came against Maryland when he carried the ball four times for 46 yards, including a 44-yard run early in the 31-14 win.

According to ESPN during the game, Schmitt had broken eight face masks in his career to that point.

In the next game against East Carolina, Schmitt rushed for 32 yards on four carries with two receptions for nine yards.

Against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, he earned MVP honors with two touchdowns on eight carries for 39 yards; in that game he also had a 31-yard reception (where he hurdled one defender and ran over another) and a 27-yard punt that was downed inside the Syracuse 10-yard line on a trick play.

In a subsequent game, a 28-23 victory over #22 Cincinnati, he rushed for 19 yards on six carries, including the first score of the game, a four-yard touchdown run.

After wins over Louisville and Cincinnati, he had reportedly recorded 10 broken facemasks.

WVU's impressive run to the national title game was sidetracked on the last game of the season with a loss in the Backyard Brawl to Pitt.

This knocked them out of the National Championship game and matched them up instead with #4 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

Schmitt's 57-yard touchdown run in the 48-28 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma came in an emotional game, his dash through the line of scrimmage and down the sideline broke open what had been a tight 6-3 scoreline.

That run was also a personal career-best as well as a WVU school bowl record (until Noel Devine broke the record in the fourth quarter of that same game).

It also marked the third consecutive bowl in which Schmitt had a 50+ yard run.

Schmitt finished the Fiesta Bowl with three rushes for 64 yards and a touchdown.

Schmitt was awarded the Ira Errett Rodgers Award and Fred Schaus Captain's Award at the end of the regular season by head coach Rich Rodriguez.

As a rush blocker, Schmitt finished the 2007 season with 106 knockdown blocks and 17 touchdown-resulting blocks.

He also finished the season with two of his three "pooch" punts downed inside the 20-yard line, for an average of 20.3 yards-per-punt.

In Schmitt's career, he earned 21 career starts, four of which were at tight end.

He was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft.

He played college football at West Virginia University.

Before transferring to the Mountaineers he played at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Schmitt has also played for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Oakland Raiders.

Schmitt was born with a cleft lip and palate and underwent several surgeries to correct it as a child, including one when he was in fourth grade in which doctors inserted a piece of hip bone into his jaw.

As a result, he has a scar running from under his nose to his upper lip.

Schmitt played fullback, defensive end, and linebacker first at Paul VI Catholic High School and then Fairfax High School in Virginia.

After graduation from high school, he enrolled at Wisconsin–River Falls.

At River Falls, he posted a 1,063 yards and five touchdown performance his freshman year, which earned him WIAC all-conference honors in only nine starting games.

Schmitt attended spring practice the next year at West Virginia University.