Longtime Iowa State offensive line commit Brent Helton didn’t have a normal recruiting process.
Him and his twin brother, Wade, wanted to be recruited as a packaged deal – and were as they got further along in their high school careers.
But after they committed to Iowa State, the pair continued to hear their phones ring.
“It was kind of weird that all of a sudden, people started calling us like midway through the season,” Helton said. “And nobody really stopped recruiting us, which I thought was kind of weird after after we had already committed. I felt like we got recruited harder when we committed.”
The pair stayed committed to Iowa State through the whole process, never wavering to the outside calls that picked up as the season went on.
They’ve known for some time that they would play their college ball at Iowa State, and Brent always had the belief in himself and his twin’s talent.
“I always knew that,” Helton said when asked about the moment he knew that he and his twin had the talent to play at the same FBS school.
There were others working the phones, but Helton chose Iowa State over official offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Air Force, SMU, USF, UNLV, Colorado State, San Jose State, Utah State, UMass, and Idaho.
The pair formed close, tight-knit relationships with head coach Matt Campbell and offensive line coach Ryan Clanton.
“Oh yeah, he’s a great coach,” Helton said of Clanton. Him and coach Campbell are about 90 percent of the reason that we chose there. Clanton’s just, he’s awesome. We’ve really, really built a great relationship, especially when it came down to deciding and coach Campbell just seems like a great coach to play for.”
The twins have been best friends their whole lives growing up, and are nearly identical in there mannerisms.
So what separates the two?
“Campbell told us this (during the in-home visit) – ‘The main thing that’s different between us is on the football field – he said Brent, you’re brute strength. And Wade, athleticism,” Helton said.
Helton is one of five offensive lineman committed to joining the Cyclones in 2024 and will sign his NLI on Wednesday.
