Quinn Schulte Has Blueprint for Success
IOWA CITY, Iowa - It’s a storyline that’s been repeated every season since 2016.
A home state high school football star joins the Iowa football program as a walk-on. He plays free safety and becomes a starter, earning a scholarship along the way.
Brandon Snyder did in. Jake Gervase followed him. Jack Koerner was next in line. Now Quinn Schulte is the next man in.
“I see them on film and I’m trying to be in the same footsteps that they were,” Schulte said. “I’m trying to do their job.”
Snyder came to Iowa from West Lyon of Inwood as the most valuable player of a 14-0 Class A state championship team in 2014. By 2016 he had cracked the starting lineup. He had 53 solo tackles and 32 assists, and shared the team lead in interceptions with three,
An injury that spring limited Snyder in 2017, when he started just one game but made the most of it, returning an interception 89 yards for a touchdown against Illinois. He eventually left the program.
Snyder’s injury opened the door for Gervase, who joined the program from Assumption High School in Davenport. Gervase started 10 games at free safety in 2017, including the last seven, as a junior. He finished his breakthrough season with 58 tackles, including 31 solo stops, and three interceptions.
Gervase didn’t leave the starting lineup as a senior, and finished his Hawkeye career with 20 consecutive starts and 31 overall. He led Iowa with 89 tackles in 2018 and added four interceptions.
Like Gervase, Koerner got most of his experience on special teams early in his career after arriving from Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines. He broke into the lineup as a sophomore in 2019, starting 11 games and recording 49 solo tackles, 32 assists, an interception and recovering two fumbles.
He started all eight games in 2020, with 26 solo tackles, 19 assists, three interceptions and a blocked field goal. Koerner started 13 of 14 games last season, with 62 solo tackles and 89 overall. He also had two interceptions and 3.5 tackles for a loss. Koerner ended up with 32 career starts.
Those are the shoes that Schulte talks about filling. And he credits Koerner for preparing him for this moment.
“Jack definitely helped me a lot along the way,” Schulte said. “So I owe a lot to him. He was a great role model for me.”
The 6-foot-1, 208-pound junior, who quarterbacked Xavier of Cedar Rapids to a pair of state football titles, is looking for success on the other side of the line.Phil Parker, Iowa’s defensive coordinator, considers that a plus.
“I think he has the ability to understand the game and know how they’re going to try to attack you,” Parker said.
Parker sees Schulte as a player who is getting a grasp on the nuances of the free safety position.
“I think he’s started to see the big picture,” Parker said. “You need a director back there, you need someone to direct the traffic. And he does a really good job of that, and to me he just keeps getting better and better. He’s not going to change his body size, and he’s not going to change how fast he is. But he is improving, and he’s getting to places where you say, “Wow, how did he make that play?’ I’m really pleased. He’s a quiet leader. He knows what he’s doing.”
Schulte got a taste of free safety last season, playing in 12 games. He also recorded his first career interception at Maryland, returning it 42 yards. He was one of six different Hawkeyes to record a pick in that game, tying a school record set against Wisconsin in 1982. Teammates Terry Roberts and Kaevon Merriwether also had their first career interceptions in that game.
Schulte also got some significant playing time against Illinois, when Koerner was injured.
“I was just trying to be ready if Jack went down or anything like that,” Schulte said. “Just trying to do my job on the back end.”
Schulte played football for his father, Duane, at Xavier. That gives him a unique perspective to the player-coach side of the game. And he appreciates the kind of coach he has in Parker.
“He’s unbelievable,” Schulte said. “There’s a reason he wins all those awards. He works day in, day out. He’s always going to be honest with you, and he’s always going to coach you. At the end of the day he just wants what’s best for us.”
Schulte also competed in basketball, baseball and track at Xavier, but football has always been No. 1 in his book.
“Every day you get to come out here and you get to play a game that you’ve been playing as a kid,” Schulte said. “You get to go out and hit guys. On the defensive side you’re trying to get picks and score touchdowns in your own way. There are a lot of di
