Seeley seals the deal with ISU

A few days after losing a redshirt freshman linebacker to the "homesick" bug, Iowa State has replenished at the position with a 2012 prospect that shouldn't have that problem.

Perry (Iowa) two-sport standout Kane Seeley committed to ISU on Thursday with a phone call to his lead recruiter, assistant coach Bob Elliot. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Seeley earned his Cyclone offer at Iowa State's padded camp in mid-June and followed that up with unofficial visit to the ISU campus in early July.

Perry is just 40 miles from Ames. Earlier this week, ISU announced that Floridian Donald Smith was transferring to play closer to home at Division I-AA Bethune-Cookman. But the Cyclones were in need of LBs in their 2012 class before Smith's departure.

And Seeley, an undefeated state wrestling champion in Iowa as a junior, said Thursday it was just time to make his decision.

"I had gotten a note from Coach Elliot that he wanted to talk to me so I knew I'd be calling him in the next couple of days," Seeley said. "Since I knew I was going to talk to him, I really got serious about deciding once and for all if this is what I wanted. It is, it's the place for me. It's my school."

After attending Iowa State's camp last month, Seeley told CycloneReport.com that he was already sold on the athletic side of things at ISU. But he still needed to learn more about the academic side, which he did on the follow-up unofficial visit to Ames.

"I went into a lot more depth visiting the rest of the campus and learning about academics," said Seeley. "I got to tour the education department because that's what I want to go into. I met with a lady there who spent a lot of time with me and answered my questions." Seeley said he is considering a career in physical education or perhaps going on to grad school and becoming a college coach.

Iowa State was far and away Seeley's main suitor for football. He also attended camp at Northern Iowa and got positive feedback from the Panther coaches, but sensed they were not going to go any further than that with him since ISU had offered. It was in his other sport - wrestling - that Seeley was getting the most recruiting attention.

"It was mainly just Iowa State for football, but I was still talking to a few other schools for wrestling," Seeley explained. "In choosing Iowa State, I'm also choosing football (over wrestling)." Seeley was the Class 2A state champion at 215 pounds in 2011.

Seeley said the Iowa State football coaching staff asked him what position he saw himself playing at the next level. He said middle linebacker and the Cyclone coaches agreed, so that is the position he will play upon entering the program in 2012.