The path to becoming a major college running back started many years ago for Tyler Goodson.

From youth football, to middle school, to his early years in high school, Goodson was always striving to be the best he could be on and off the football field.

By his sophomore year at North Gwinnett High School in Georgia, Goodson was getting some recruiting attention. There were letters arriving on a regular basis from college programs, but it wasn’t until early in his junior year that he really started to believe that playing at the highest level of college football would be possible.

“I think it was my fourth game of the year in my junior year,” Goodson said. “I had a breakout game and that’s when I knew I could play major college football.”

By the end of his junior year after rushing for 1,437 yards and scoring 25 touchdowns, the offers started rolling in. The first major school to jump in was Appalachian State. Soon, others followed. First it was more regional with schools like Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wake Forest and then Iowa and many others jumped into the fray.

“To be honest, I didn’t even know where Iowa was when they offered. The only Midwest teams I really knew about where schools like Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State, so it was a surprise when they called to offer.”

The Hawkeyes had just flipped one of Goodson’s senior teammates, Jayden McDonald from Rutgers to Iowa in February and they began their pursuit in full.

Leading that charge was first year running backs coach Derrick Foster. He’s an Alabama native who had been at Samford University before moving to Iowa City. Foster was not only looking for running backs, but his recruiting territory would be the area he knew best, states like Alabama and Georgia.

“Coach Foster was always very honest with me,” Goodson said. “He was always straight forward with me about everything and completely up front, which I appreciated. He’s also from the south, so we developed a strong bond over that and I really trusted him.”

Still, Goodson didn’t know a whole lot about Iowa. Like many high school players from the south, he imagined cornfields and livestock, more than a vibrant college community. What may have helped the Hawkeyes more than anything else in the recruitment of Goodson was his relationship with McDonald.

“I still think I would have looked seriously at Iowa even without Jayden going there, but having him there and hearing what he said about Iowa made me feel really comfortable,” he said. “He told me you really don’t know what Iowa is until you get there and visit and then you know and love it.”

With the new recruiting rules in full effect, Goodson was Iowa’s first official visitor during the new spring period when schools could bring junior prospects on campus. He made his official visit in April with his mom and became sold fairly quickly.

“On the plane to Iowa, my mom and I were talking about Iowa and what we thought it might be like and it turned out to be totally different. The campus was great and the people were great too.”

Goodson and his mom left Iowa pretty much sold on the Hawkeyes.

“When I went up there it felt like home,” he said looking back on his official visit.

Iowa had planned on taking two running backs in the Class of 2019, but in early June, those plans changed. The Hawkeyes felt they needed another running back in 2018 and signed junior college prospect Mekhi Sargent, who ended up leading the Hawkeyes this season with 748 yards rushing and 9 touchdowns this season.

That meant Iowa would, at the time, only have room for one running back in the 2019 class. By the later stages of June, the Hawkeyes were scheduled to host a large group of official visitors. One of them was four star running back Jirehl Brock from Quincy, IL. Brock had been a long time Iowa target and the Hawkeye coaches told Goodson they would need an answer as to whether he was ready to commit.

“When I left my official visit in the spring, I knew I was going to go to Iowa, but I also wanted to weigh my options a little bit.” He said. “Then Coach Foster called me one day in the middle of June when I was working at a youth camp and he told me how Jirel Brock was going to take his official visit that weekend and most likely he was going to commit. A that point I told him then that I was 100% in.”

Goodson waited until July 3rd to let the entire world know where he was headed to college. Brock ended up having his visit cancelled and eventually committed to Iowa State, which means they will see each other on the field the next four years in the annual Cy-Hawk game in September.

Once Goodson was officially on board, he began to build a strong bond with the rest of the 2019 Iowa recruiting class. The #Swarm19 group as they are called, began a text group where they kept in touch with each other on a regular basis. Eventually, Goodson met all of his future teammates on a trip to Iowa City for the Wisconsin game and it further solidified his college choice.

“The text group really brought all of us closer together. This group is all in with each other and getting to meet all those guys in person for the game in September made it even stronger. We are all really close and everyone made me feel comfortable right away.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be football recruiting if there wasn’t a little last minute drama and for a second Goodson made Iowa fans hearts skip a beat when his mother, Felicia, posted a picture of Tyler with Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who visited with the family late last week.

It was four years ago when Harbaugh and the Wolverines swooped in at the last minute and pulled away long time Iowa commit Karan Higdon from the Hawkeyes. This time, there would be no last minute drama.

“They (Michigan) had a running back decommit and they were down visiting my old high school teammate, D.J. Turner, who is committed to Michigan. They asked if I would stop over and I got to talk to their coaches for a little bit,” Goodson said.

It didn’t go any further than that as far as Michigan recruiting him. They wished Goodson well at Iowa, but the family discussed sharing the picture on social media.

“I was scared about sharing the picture because I knew my phone would start blowing up with calls from the Iowa coaches. Then I saw that my mom had shared it and I thought, oh no. I called my mom and she said it was ok and that she had already talked to the Iowa coaches about it and we just started laughing about it.”

Now all that is left for Goodson is putting pen to paper on Wednesday morning and signing his National Letter of Intent to attend the University of Iowa. It will be a culmination of hours of hard work and training for the future Hawkeye running back.

“I honestly don’t know how I will feel at that moment,” he said, “It’s also finals week for me at school, so I’ve been focused on that this week, but I am really excited about my future with the Hawkeyes.”