K Wagner commits to Illinois State
O'Fallon (Ill.) senior two star ranked kicker Ian Wagner (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) decided on Tuesday night to give in-state Illinois State University his verbal commitment. Wagner, who has been on several recruiting radar screens since his freshman year of high school discusses his college decision here.
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"Illinois State is just a great opportunity," Wagner said. "Illinois State will allow me a chance to play some wide receiver along with my kicking and punting abilities. I'm just thrilled to have a chance from Illinois State to show what I can do on the field."
Wagner, who had drawn recruiting looks and interest from multiple Power 5 level schools over his process is thrilled to put his recruiting process behind him.
"It's been a long process and also a very stressful process and I'm just glad to be committed. If I honestly had known how difficult the process is for kickers and specialist can be I would have committed much earlier in the process. I had interest and attention for a lot of different schools but most of them just didn't plan to offer. COVID also played a big factor in my recruiting process. I was planning to camp this summer at a lot of schools including Notre Dame, Penn State and West Virginia and not being able to kick for those coaches made the process even harder. The only camp I was able to go to was Kohl's Kicking camp and I'm thankful to at least get that camp in this summer."
Wagner also had to deal with moving from Arizona back to O'Fallon while also dealing with his recruiting process under the COVID pandemic.
"When I was dealing with all of the recruiting issues and getting set to move back to O'Fallon, I really started looking harder at Illinois State. I started to realize that Illinois State is a great school with a great football program. Illinois State offers a strong education, they play in a great conference (Missouri Valley Conference) and I'll have an opportunity at Illinois State to utilize my abilities on the field. I'm completely stress free today with announcing my decision and it's a great feeling."
Wagner is also joining a growing in-state recruiting class for the ISU Redbirds.
"I know that Illinois State has been adding some commitments and a lot of those kids are from in-state. I've been invited into a few group chats. I'm looking to get to know some of the guys who are committed toIllinois State soon. Hopefully someday we will be allowed to get on campus and make a visit."
Ian Wagner is verbally committed to Illinois State University.