4-star OT Sean Foster 'felt at home' with Iowa State, Matt Campbell

AMES — Sean Foster and his family were on the way home from his recruiting trip to Iowa State, mulling over his options. But they were missing an important opinion in the discussion: his mom's.

Just a couple days after the offensive lineman prospect returned home to Mundelein, Ill., ISU offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Tom Manning and tight end coach/recruiting coordinator Alex Golesh made the trip to the Chicago area to visit again. This time, they wanted to meet Foster's mother.

'That set it over the top for me,' Foster said. 'When they asked to come and see my mom, they wanted her to experience it and that was a big selling point that this is just where I need to be.'

Rivals and Scout rank Foster as a four-star offensive tackle while 247 Sports lists him as a three-star player with roughly 15 Power Five offers, but his journey to finally pledging his commitment to coach Matt Campbell and Iowa State on Jan. 19 didn't come without a few twists and turns.

He was originally committed to Minnesota but amid Jerry Kill stepping down late last season, the 6-foot-8, 295-pound Foster decided to reopen his recruitment. But even though he wasn't pledging to join the Golden Gophers, Kill recognized a few schools in the Midwest that might be a good fit.

Foster had Iowa State, Purdue and Illinois among his final three schools, but he remembered what Kill said to him from the onset of his recruitment getting reopened.

'(Kill) kind of helped me out with recruiting a little bit and made sure I got back up on my feet,' Foster said. 'He said, 'You should go to Iowa State because Iowa State is an up-and-rising school and you can get the best of both worlds there.'

Right alongside Sean through the recruiting process was his father, Troy, who played on the offensive line at Iowa under Hayden Fry in the 1990s. With Campbell and Manning boasting experience in coaching offensive lines plus Troy's familiarity with the position, the conversations on what the staff envisions for the Cyclones next season was encouraging to hear.

'It's an incredibly important position on the football team, but Coach Manning especially in our one-on-one meeting, (was excited),' Troy said. 'He was sweating because he was so excited to talk football. That's really what I look for in a coach. He loves the game. He loves to get the best out of his players and he definitely has the ability to do that.'

Foster said on every day in which they are allowed, at least one member of the ISU coaching staff has reached out to him just to check in, which has set his mind at ease since the whirlwind process of being re-recruited began. What caught Foster's attention about Iowa State, even more than the facilities, were the people.

'It actually felt like home when I was there,' Foster said. 'That was one of the key things I was looking for. I was trying to figure everything out like where I could go to school and trust the coaching staff and where I could go to school and my family would be able to trust it as well.'

The coaching staff didn't promise immediate playing time or specific positions, but what stood out to Troy throughout the process was the direction in which the Cyclones are moving.

'They're well on their way of winning a lot of games at Iowa State,' Troy, a native Iowan, said. 'Obviously with me playing at Iowa, I will be a Hawkeye fan every single day of the year with the exception of one day. Now I'm a Cyclone and Hawkeye fan.'

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