Nathan Scheelhaase (born November 8, 1990) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach and former

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

who is the offensive assistant and passing game specialist for the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He previously served as the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

and

quarterbacks coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, associate and assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordina ...

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

in 2023. Scheelhasse played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

from 2010 to 2013. While playing at

Rockhurst High School Rockhurst High School is a private, Jesuit, all-boys preparatory school founded in 1910 along with Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. It moved away from the College in 1962 to a campus on State Line Road in Kansas City. ...

, he won the 2008 Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year.

High school career

Scheelhaase attended Rockhurst High School in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

. While at Rockhurst, Scheelhaase was a good student as well as a ten-time varsity letterman in football, track, and basketball. He was a four-star prospect on both Scout.com and Rivals.com. He was ranked as the seventh best dual-threat quarterback on Rivals.com. In football, Scheelhaase won the Thomas A. Simone Award, which is given to the most outstanding high school football player in the Kansas City Metropolitan area, his junior season. He was the fifth player from Rockhurst to have won the award, and the first since Brandon Shelby in 1999. Scheelhaase also was the recipient of the Missouri

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls cross country, boys football, boys and girl ...

for football his junior year. His junior year, he led Rockhurst to a 13–0 season, and a Missouri Class-6 state championship passing for 1861 yards, 20 touchdowns and only five interceptions. On the ground he also rushed 120 times for 917 yards and 14 scores. He is 6’2” weighing 190 lb., and he runs a 4.5 40-yard dash.

Recruiting

Scheelhaase committed to the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

on July 16, 2008. Scheelhaase was recruited by the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

, the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

, the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

, the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

, and the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

among others before signing with Illinois. Scheelhaase played safety as a sophomore and said some schools had talked to him about the possibility of playing on defense, but under center is where he wanted to be. "Most everybody is recruiting me at quarterback and that's what I think I'm gonna play."

College career

Scheelhaase was redshirted his freshman year; Illinois started QBs Juice Williams and Eddie McGee. Scheelhaase became the starting quarterback for the 2010 season. Nathan led Illinois to a 6-6 season; completing 137 passes on 241 attempts for 1,583 yards in the regular season, along with 17 touchdown passes and 8 interceptions. Scheelhaase also ran for 806 yards on 175 carries and 4 touchdowns, and was an excellent complement to Illini RB

Mikel Leshoure Mikel Leshoure (born March 30, 1990) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft. He played colleg ...

in the running game. In the

2010 Texas Bowl The 2010 Texas Bowl was the fifth edition of the college football bowl game, and was played at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The game started at 5:00 p.m. US CST on Wednesday, December 29, 2010. The game was telecast on ESPN for the se ...

against Baylor, Scheelhaase completed 18 passes on 23 attempts for 242 yards with no interceptions. Scheelhaase had a 55-yard touchdown run late in the game, and which helped secure Illinois's first bowl victory in more than a decade, winning 38-14.

Statistics

Scheelhaase's college stats at the completion of the 2013 season. Source:

Records

Scheelhaase holds the

Illinois Fighting Illini football The Illinois Fighting Illini football program represents the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. The Fighting Illini are a founding member of ...

record for career total offensive yards with 10,634. Other records held by Scheelhaase are the third most career passing yards with 8,568, the highest season completion percentage with 66.74% (287-430), and the second most career rushing yards by a quarterback with 2,066.

Coaching career

Illinois

On May 19, 2015, the University of Illinois announced it had hired Sheelhaase as Assistant Director of Football Operations. He had been offered the same position the year previous, but declined it because of a previous commitment to a youth ministry in Louisville, Kentucky. On August 29, 2015, after the firing of Scheelhaase's head coach from his playing days,

Tim Beckman Timothy David Beckman (born January 19, 1965) is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Toledo from 2009 to 2011 and at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 2012 to 2014, comp ...

, Illinois offensive coordinator

Bill Cubit William John Cubit (; born October 14, 1953) is an American football coach and former player. Cubit was the head football coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, first on an interim basis in the 2015 season and then promoted t ...

was promoted to interim head coach, which opened up a slot on the Illinois coaching staff, and Scheelhaase was promoted to running backs coach.

Iowa State

On January 25, 2018, it was announced Scheelhaase was hired as the running backs coach under Matt Campbell at

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

. In 2019, he became the wide receivers coach for Iowa State. In 2021, in addition to coaching the wide receivers, he was given the additional titles of running game coordinator and running backs coach. Prior to the 2023 season, he was promoted to

, replacing Tom Manning.

Los Angeles Rams

On February 19, 2024, Scheelhaase was hired as pass game specialist by the

. “Nate is going and will do a great job. Honestly, an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Love him and will miss him, but truly a great opportunity for him!” said Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell upon Scheelhaase's departure.

Personal information

Scheelhaase's father, Nate Creer, started at defensive back for the

, and started for the 1985 team that lost to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in the Rose Bowl to finish 10-2, and be ranked No. 10 at the end of the season AP Poll. He was named as one of Iowa’s all-time team MVPs.

References

External links

Illinois profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheelhaase, Nathan 1990 births Living people Players of American football from Davenport, Iowa American football quarterbacks Illinois Fighting Illini football players Coaches of American football from Iowa Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches Iowa State Cyclones football coaches Los Angeles Rams coaches