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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — This meeting room used to be a nursery.

That was back when the building was a hospital, when it housed patients and gurneys. Now, it houses the football offices of Division II Truman State University.

In big decal letters stuck to the nursery-turned-meeting-room wall, visible through the hallway window, is a slogan: “Effort is our edge.�

A few hundred feet away, through a wood-paneled gymnasium and a well-loved, often-shared weight room, is the field.

Stokes Stadium seats roughly 4,500 people in its singular block of bleachers. The press box is new; the Bulldogs’ locker room is not. The wooden stalls have absorbed decades of pungent smell, plus some discarded helmet stickers.

“Welcome to Division II,� said Truman coach Gregg Nesbitt. “To the Deuce, as we call it.�

This place is at the core of Cody Schrader’s story. It’s where the kid who scored his first touchdown with just one shoe became the best D-II running back in the nation. It’s where the young man who lost his best friend at a young age dominated in his honor and, once, his number.

Schrader, now the Southeastern Conference’s rushing leader, decided to play here while standing under one of the goalposts, mostly because it was the only place he could keep playing.

It’s 95 miles of cornfields from the University of Missouri, where he plays now. The places are so very different. So are the opportunities, the resources, the appreciation and the rewards.

His work, though — that’s the same. And that’s what Schrader’s story is all about.

“The whole recipe to this whole thing is work,� he said after becoming the first SEC player to run for 200 yards and haul in 100 receiving yards in the same game.

“This is a beautiful story,â€� said Desmond Reichold, who coached Schrader at Lutheran High School South in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. “But this has not been an easy story.â€�

‘Those schools fell off’

As a toddler, Schrader was always on the move. Gates around the house couldn’t corral him. Neither could the car seats.

“They could not build a car seat to contain that kid,� said Tom Schrader, Cody’s dad, pausing as he realized the foreshadowing. “And, you’d like to think, well, neither can Georgia’s defense.�

Schrader, the first running back in three years to rush for more than 100 yards against the formidable ‘Dawgs defense, didn’t start playing football until middle school. The Schraders are a baseball family and Tom was a “little standoffish� toward letting his son get voluntarily pummeled.

Naturally, Schrader scored a touchdown in his first game, running 70 yards to the house on one of his first touches.

“I looked down,� Tom said, “the kid’s doing it with one shoe.�

Years later, during a frigid senior year playoff game at Lutheran South, Reichold noticed Schrader repeatedly try to bounce runs to the outside. “My chest hurts,� the running back told his coach, attributing it to the cold.

The pain didn’t fade in the next day’s warmth. His sternum was broken, and yes, he’d played through it.

But a gritty story and gaudy stats — 6,759 yards and 99 touchdowns — never generated much recruiting interest. One Division I school booked an official visit for Schrader, only to cancel his flight before he left because they already signed a running back.

By the time Schrader ventured to Kirksville and visited Truman, he didn’t have much of a choice. Even other Division II and III options were slipping away.

“Those schools fell off,� said Kellen Nesbitt, the Truman assistant coach who recruited Schrader. “We were still there … I think he was so disgusted with the recruiting process that he just said yes.�

When he enrolled in 2018, Schrader was at the bottom of the running back depth chart, a begrudging redshirt. That preserved eligibility is allowing him to play a sixth year of college football this season, but it didn’t feel like much of a blessing at the time. Schrader couldn’t bring himself to watch other college football games while he was sitting on the bench at his own.

“He didn’t watch any football. He didn’t play any football,� Tom said. “And it drove him nuts.�

Once Schrader was suiting up regularly with Truman, the legends returned.

In a 2021 road game at No. 12-ranked Tiffin, his legs propelled the Bulldogs to 14 points in the final three minutes for an improbable comeback win. Schrader walked off the field with his second and final team-issued jersey so ripped up that it looked like he was playing in just shoulder pads, Gregg Nesbitt remembers.

After Truman lost a home game, most players went to dinner with their families. Schrader stayed on the field to work out, former teammate and quarterback Nolan Hair recalls.

“He would do Cody things, where if anyone else did it, you’d be like, ‘What are you doing?’ � offensive lineman Dane Eggert said. “You can’t yell at him — he’s making touchdowns.�

Schrader rushed for 2,074 yards and 25 touchdowns during that 2021 season, but there was no glamor.

“You don’t get the publicity and the hype,� said Chico Orlando, a former Truman player who trains Schrader. “Division II, he was the leading rusher in the nation, but nobody even knew that besides the guys he was playing against.�

“I didn’t think Cody was ever really — happy may not be the correct word — certainly satisfied here,� Nesbitt said.

Schrader entered the transfer portal after the 2021 season. He’d spent four seasons in Kirksville, and both Cody and Tom felt it was important that he fulfilled the four-year promise he made when he committed. Eligibility boosts meant Schrader had two seasons left to try to level up.

A friend showed his tape to Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz, and word came to the Schrader family that Cody could walk on with the Tigers. No scholarship, no playing time, nothing guaranteed — just an opportunity.

He took it.

Schrader worked his way into a wide-open running back rotation by the start of the 2022 season. Now, he’s a one-man show, bowling over defenders and statistical milestones, like 321 yards of total offense in that Tennessee game.

The effort that became Schrader’s edge hasn’t gone away.

“I’m always in awe of Cody and his work ethic,� said Tom, who regularly worked 60-plus hours each week.

‘Justin’s the fuel’

For all the grit that’s part of the Cody Schrader story, there’s also grief.

At Lutheran South, Cody Schrader and Justin Budrovich were best friends — “thick as thieves,� as Tom puts it. They played baseball together, with Schrader in center field and Budrovich at second base. In 2018, they were both all-state selections.

At home, they would drag TVs and PlayStation consoles into the same room to play Fortnite, teaming up in the battle-royale video game for hours.

Budrovich died by suicide in November 2019. A week after being a pallbearer at his best friend’s funeral, Schrader carried the ball in the final game of Truman’s season.

Schrader has dedicated an entire tattoo sleeve to Budrovich’s memory.

“He was like a brother to me,� he said when asked about the ink during a live radio show, struggling to get out words beyond that.

He played his final regular season Truman game wearing Budrovich’s No. 2, with Justin’s family present.

“He just turned it up a notch from there,� Tom said. “That’s where he said, ‘You know what, I’m going to play for Justin. Justin’s the fuel that’s going to get me going.’ He’s going to use that to push him to be successful because that’s what Justin wanted.

‘They’re that much sweeter’

Schrader recognized the best day of his life as it was happening. It was Nov. 11, the Tennessee game, the night teammates chanted Cody’s name and lifted him onto their shoulders.

“That’s definitely my No. 1 moment in my entire life,� he told reporters.

After the media blitz, he walked out onto Faurot Field. Schrader soaked in an empty stadium.

“He probably went out there and had a conversation with Justin, to be honest with you,� Tom said. “He knows Justin’s with him.�

Budrovich’s family included a Bible verse in their announcement of his death: Isaiah 40:31.

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength,� it goes. “They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary.�

Run and not grow weary. Work out more after rushing for 200 yards. Keep playing through the pain of a broken chest bone. Make effort an edge.

“All that stuff happened,� Nesbitt said. “He’s been allowed to go through all of those experiences, so the sweet moments of life that we all hit, they’re that much sweeter.�

The rewards that are currently falling to Schrader will end soon. On Saturday, he’ll play his last game in Memorial Stadium. On Nov. 24, the anniversary of Budrovich’s death, he’ll play his final regular season college football game.

For now, he’s a surprised but not surprising blue-collar role model, the running back who keeps churning uphill but never seems to grow weary.

“It never was my goal to have a story where people can look up to me and stuff like that,� Schrader said. “I never did it because I wanted to have a story. It just kind of worked out that way.�