Carter Hewitt played 1 season of high school football, but at UNI, ‘it’s his time’

CEDAR FALLS — Carter Hewitt reflected on the time he spent developing as a football player after recording his first career sack in Northern Iowa’s season-opening win last Saturday.

The redshirt junior defensive tackle brought down Valparaiso quarterback Rowan Keefe late in the first quarter of what became a 35-7 win, provoking the Jewell native to think back on his football journey when he got home later that night.

“It (made) it all worth it,” Hewitt said. “You think about all the hours spent (weight) lifting, doing all the drills and stuff like that, it makes everything worth it. It was awesome.”

UNI Coach Mark Farley praised Hewitt this week and didn’t hesitate to place expectations on him.

“Carter is just coming into his own,” Farley said. “It takes time to grow into being a defensive tackle. It’s his time. He’s big enough now. He’s strong enough. He has enough game experience that he can start to show up and he showed up the other night and we need him to show up.”

Hewitt’s path to becoming a starting Division-I defensive tackle was anything but ordinary.

With baseball being his favorite sport, he didn’t play football until his senior year at South Hamilton, but managed to record six sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss in his lone season.

Since arriving at UNI he pointed out how older defensive linemen such as Khristian Boyd, Caden Houghtelling, Jared Brinkman and Tim Butcher helped him learn a lot quickly. More impactful than anyone to his quick study of the game, though, has been Panthers defensive line coach Bryce Paup — the 1995 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

“Everything I really know about football has come from (Paup),” Hewitt said. “Anytime that he tells me anything it’s not like you ever have to doubt if my coach really knows what they’re talking about. He’s been there. He’s done it all and he’s been an awesome resource.”

UNI’s discovery of Hewitt was even more out of the ordinary than his playing just one season of high school football.

With COVID-19 pandemic protocols in place during the 2020 season — and pandemic protocols also altering recruiting — it was by chance that former UNI defensive coordinator Jeremiah Johnson spotted the 6-foot-6 defensive lineman when the Hawks played at Dike-New Hartford.

“(Johnson) had a foreign exchange student there and it was senior night. So, the only reason he was at the game was to go to the senior night for his foreign exchange student that was in band,” Hewitt said. “Apparently he just saw me warming up. That’s just kinda how it got started, how I got on their radar.”

Next up for Hewitt and the Panthers (0-1) is their first road game Saturday at St. Thomas (0-1) at 1 p.m.

“They’re a big power-run, get-in-your-face type football team, so I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to show that we can and we will stop the run,” Hewitt said.