Fifth-year senior tackle Foy prepares for position switch after learning from past obstacles

Paola Foy was getting ready to leave the house when her mother called in a panic.

It was Winter Break in 2013, just after Paola’s older brother and Syracuse’s starting right tackle, Ivan, helped the Orange to a 21-17 win over Minnesota in the Texas Bowl.

He was sleeping in bed, so Paola woke him up, confused why her mother feared for his future after getting off the phone with SU head coach Scott Shafer. But Ivan knew. He tried explaining to his sister that he’d been suspended from all team activities for failing a class in the fall, but words wouldn’t come out. He stayed in the same spot in bed for six hours, looking up at the ceiling, wondering if he’d ever play football for Syracuse again.

“I wanted to die,” Foy’s mother, Ramona Santana said. “When the coach called me and told me that, I wanted to die.”

Foy openly talks about his bumps in the road. The immaturity as a freshman third-stringer. The academic struggles that threatened his future at Syracuse. The six-game absence last season because of a right knee injury that deflated his morale.

They’ve helped mold the fifth-year senior working to perfect the intricacies of a new position after switching from right tackle to left. It’s a challenge belittled by past obstacles, but one that could validate Foy’s career in the last chance to do so.

“I don’t ever want to come off the field and say, ‘Damn, I wish I would’ve had this block and maybe we would’ve scored,’” Foy said. “Nah, I need to get everything done this year.”

Foy doesn’t hesitate for a second when admitting that his freshman self was immature.

He went through the motions because he felt he wasn’t getting attention. Andrew Tiller, a senior offensive lineman at the time, said Foy cut class and didn’t listen. The way Foy says this year’s freshmen are “so smart and so into things” was absent with him four years ago.

“I knew that I wasn’t playing so I kind of laid back and kind of tried to enjoy college freshman year and not so much focus on football,” Foy said.

The only reason people were patient was because they knew Foy had intangibles to complement a maturity if it ever developed, Tiller said.

But until then, a 6-foot-4, 318-pound redshirt stood on the sideline with untapped potential.

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When Ivan Foy Sr. hung up with Shafer – Foy left it to the head coach to tell his parents – Paola broke down in tears.

“Oh my god,” Foy Sr. now says with a chuckle about the moment. “…I don’t even know how to describe it.”

Before Foy began his path back, Tiller had a stern message: “It’s not the end of the road yet, but it can be if you don’t get your sh*t together well.”

He had to pass all his classes, get above a 2.0 grade point average, stay in shape and then, if he maintained all three, could rejoin the team if Shafer wanted.

Foy couldn’t be around the team in Manley Field House during spring ball. He estimates 95 percent of his time is spent with football players, so he felt uncomfortable not having them around. When they were, he wouldn’t talk about football.

In the meantime, he watched TV in his room, played video games or shot hoops at Archbold Gymnasium. After being out of his element for an entire semester, he got a call from his advisor in the Falk College, who told Foy he’d met the academic requirements to return.

He was lying in the same spot in his bed at home, this time tearing up.

**

Foy ran down the MetLife Stadium turf against Notre Dame last September, looking to block a safety as the Orange ran an outside zone to the left.

“And out of nowhere, pop pop.”

Doctors gave him two options: end his season with surgery or rehab on his own and possibly play again. Foy chose the latter and began an eight-week stretch that included 2-3 rehab sessions per day, coaching his teammates from the sideline and somberly walking into the training room.

Foy never missed a game in high school due to injury, Fort Hamilton head coach Daniel Perez said. He had trouble coping with being sidelined and Paola said he even pondered culinary school as a backup career path.

But he returned Nov. 22 against Pittsburgh and has been at full health since shortly after the season, easing his transition to left tackle. The change in technique is nothing drastic, just doing the opposite footwork and hand maneuvers. The position comes with increased pressure since he’s protecting quarterback Terrel Hunt’s blindside, but Foy prefers it that way.

“He’s one of those guys that, if I was to get hit, he would get down on himself,” Hunt said. “He really cares about playing that position.”

It’s a different pressure than what Foy has shouldered before and one he marvels at. It’ll make his teammates and coaches trust him, something they haven’t always been able to do.

**

Foy’s forehead drips with sweat at a post-practice interview, his “man bun” standing vertically on his head secured by a hair tie. He’s dropped 38 pounds since his freshman year and reflects on how the past guides who he’s become.

Whenever he’s in Brooklyn, Foy visits Fort Hamilton and preaches to the football team about staying on top of academics. This year he vows to lead strictly by example since he never liked being told what to do.

“Ivan’s like a new person, a new player,” center Rob Trudo said.

Paola, Foy’s only sibling of five that shares the same two parents, said he used to avoid all conversation with her. Now she feels comfortable going to him for advice in school or at home, and called his maturation mind-blowing.

Foy’s transformation off the field has formed a new player on it, and the hurdles he’s jumped have given him a new perspective on the delicacy of a football career.

He’s itching to capitalize on this year’s clean slate, which is something he’s several times thought would never come again.

“I just want to be that guy that the O-line leans on, like you want to run it to my side to have pressure on me,” Foy said. “…just knowing it’s my last year and I’m going to give it all I’ve got.”