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Carmel Catholic's Foster finds a fit in Minnesota

All set to watch his Carmel Catholic schoolmates play a home baseball game on a sunny day, Sean Foster wore an excessively large maroon-and-gold University of Minnesota T-shirt and complementing lanyard.

Among the dangling the keys was presumably not one to the city of Minneapolis, although the 6-foot-8, 290-pound junior offensive tackle all but received one on his visit the first weekend in April.

"When we were doing the campus tour," Foster said, "we got to see things that not every athlete gets to see on their recruiting trip before they commit."

Foster says he and his family received plenty of academic information to mull over. He met with a college professor, head football coach Jerry Kill and assistant head coach/offensive line coach Matt Limegrover. Foster even got to check out the bowling alley inside the student bookstore.

By day's end, he was bowled over, so to speak. Minnesota had rolled a strike.

Foster gave a verbal commitment to Kill, whose Golden Gophers have won eight games in each of the last two seasons. Last season culminated with a berth in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1. Kill was voted the Big Ten's Hayes-Schembechler coach of the year by the conference's coaches. The Big Ten media also selected the former Northern Illinois coach as its coach of the year.

Minny, welcome Sean Foster, who's hardly mini.

"When I went up there, I really liked it," Foster said. "It was the perfect fir for me and my family. We couldn't stop talking about it. Right then and there, we were like, 'This would be a great fit for me.' "

A large boy, Foster received a large amount of interest from college football programs. He says he had 27 scholarship offers and visited every Big Ten school (minus Penn State). Minnesota, which was the last school he visited, won out over the likes of Cal, Duke, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina State, Purdue, Rutgers, Syracuse and Virginia Tech.

He was so impressed with his Minnesota experience that he ended his recruiting journey early.

"I really wanted to make it toward the end of August," Foster said of his commitment. "But I did it early to just get it over with, because I knew it was the right fit for me."

Foster wants to be teacher who works with special-needs kids. In the meantime, he'll begin his third season as a varsity starter for Carmel in the fall, then head to Minnesota. In 2014, the Gophers had the No. 28 rushing offense in the country (sixth in the Big Ten) with 2,801 rushing yards.

"The coaching staff is unbelievable," Foster said. "When we went up there, we got to talk to Coach Kill. He's a great guy. We got to talk to Coach Limegrover as well. He's a great guy. We really enjoyed everything that they did up there, and it was a lot of fun for all of us."

Big fun awaits the big kid.

jaguilar@dailyherald.com

• Follow Joe on Twitter: @JoeAguilar64

  Sean Foster Steve Lundy/slundy@dailyherald.com
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