Schott is in a position nobody from his high school has ever been in before. The school has graduated Division-1 athletes, but as far as Schott can remember, none have been football players at a major college.

“Not football,” Schott said. “We’ve had track, we’ve had a guy come wrestle here, but not football.”

North Linn head football coach Jared Collum recognized early in Schott’s football career that he was a special player. Schott started for Collum’s team as a freshman, one of only a few to ever do so under Collum, who has led the Lynx football program since 2007.

Schott became a four-year letterman as an offensive lineman and linebacker for North Linn. He earned first-team all-state honors and was named district MVP as a senior.

“I’d describe him as a humble person, a very nice guy,” Collum said. “When he gets on the football field, he’s a very violent player. One of his biggest strengths as a player is his ability to finish plays, to finish blocks.”

That mentality has helped him onto the field.

“That’s what coaches have said since I was a little kid playing football,” Schott said. “Play through the whistle. So, that’s what I’ve learned and that’s what I’ve stuck to, and people love it.”

Schott brought his relentless blocking with him to Iowa. Videos of Schott staying on his block and taking his defender to the ground have made rounds on social media through the first few weeks of the season.

Among the people who — like Collum — love the way Schott finishes plays is ESPN personality Mike Golic Jr.

Golic Jr. played offensive line at Notre Dame from 2008-12, and he took to social media to praise Schott for one of his punishing blocks against Miami (Ohio).

Schott has possessed the mindset to finish plays and to finish them hard ever since his days in youth football. What helped him fine-tune that skill was his work on the wrestling mat.

“Mentally, I believe [wrestling] is one of the hardest sports in the world,” Schott said. “It trains you to just be tough, physical and to just keep pushing yourself. Physically, you learn how to stay low, be explosive, how to run through people.”

Schott was a four-year letterwinner in wrestling at North Linn. He wrestled his way to a 50-2 record in his senior year of high school and earned Class 1A state runner-up honors.

“We have this little joke in the O-line room,” Wirfs said. “If he does something good, we’ll be like, ‘Oh that’s the wrestler in him.’”

Schott was also a standout in basketball and baseball at North Linn.

The skills Schott utilized in his other sports may not directly translate to playing football. Except, of course, for the competitive fire that brims to the surface regardless of what he’s playing.

That competitiveness is a characteristic Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz looks for in his players.

He found it in Schott.

“I think all of us kind of followed during wrestling and the same thing going to the state track meet or the Drake Relays,” Ferentz said. “Just watching guys compete and how they do when they maybe need a big throw or need a big moment, how they react that way.”

Schott’s choices were somewhat limited when he was deciding where to go to play major college football.

A slight history with knee injuries and questions about his height turned some schools away.

“Honestly, I don’t think I even got a phone call,” Schott said. “I talked to Upper Iowa once, and they never talked to me again. But [former Iowa assistant coach Reese Morgan] seemed to really like me. Kept sending me letters, and I loved it. So I decided to walk on here.”

Morgan made quite an impression on the North Linn offensive lineman.

“As soon as he met Reese Morgan, he was pretty much set on Iowa,” Collum said. “If he was going to get a preferred walk-on spot, he was going to Iowa. That’s what we started telling schools because he could have gone to Division-2 or junior colleges, and they would have loved to have him.”

A walk-on spot at Iowa is different than one at other programs. The Hawkeyes have a history of turning under-recruited walk-on players into key contributors. From the early days of Ferentz with Dallas Clark to the more recent contributions of Nick Easley and Jake Gervase, walk-ons have a chance at Iowa.

“They don’t treat us any differently [as walk-ons],” Schott said. “We get fed the same, we get coached the same. So I knew if I was tough enough I could do it here. You got to be tough. You got to tell yourself that you’re going to push yourself every day.”

Schott has pushed himself. He would not have been called upon after Jackson’s injury — and start the two subsequent games — had he not been constantly preparing for playing time.

The grit Schott has displayed wore off on his teammates.

“He’s about 6-foot, 6-1, maybe 6-2 on a good day,” defensive end A.J. Epenesa said. “He’s a typical Iowa guy, a walk-on, works hard. He’s strong, real strong. Just put him on an incline bench and see what he can put up. He keeps his nose to the grindstone, keeps grinding. He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t quit. He’s a hard worker, a great guy. I was proud to see him on the field.”