“He felt like when he was at Wisconsin, he was just kind of thrown in with 400 kids and nobody paid attention to him hardly,” LaBuda said. “It was very obvious that there wasn’t much interest.”

One coach who was very interested in Stanley was Paul Chryst. In fact, Stanley’s first scholarship offer came from Chryst, who was at Pittsburgh at the time.

Chryst liked what he saw on film and offered Stanley following his sophomore season at Menomonie. At 6-foot-5 with great arm strength, Stanley was a perfect fit for the pro-style system Chryst runs.

Michigan State and Stanford also showed interest in Stanley, a three-sport star at Menomonie. But Stanley was eager to end the recruiting process quickly and orally committed to Iowa in November of 2014, shortly after his junior season ended.

Less than a month later, Andersen left for Oregon State and UW hired Chryst to replace him. Chryst tried making another run at Stanley, but Stanley remained committed to the Hawkeyes.

“Paul worked hard on him,” said LaBuda, who has led Menomonie to five WIAA state titles. “But Paul also understood that he had given a commitment to Iowa and I think he respected Nate for that. He did everything he possibly could. It was a timing thing.”