EAST LANSING >> Montorie Foster Jr. still can remember his first game with the Michigan State football team in 2020. Taking the field inside a crowdless Spartan Stadium due to the pandemic, it nonetheless set in that he was playing college football.

“I remember being on the front line of kickoff and like, oh my God, it’s a different level of football,” Foster reminisced Tuesday inside the Tom Izzo Football Building.

Fifty-three games and 108 catches later, the wide receiver is approaching another game against Rutgers this Saturday, which serves as senior day for Foster and the other graduating players on the team. But he doesn’t want this to be one of those full-circle moments. He wants one more game — a bowl game — but he’s only going to get it if his team wins Saturday.

There’s a sense of urgency there, not just in approaching a must-win game but also one that could help define his legacy. To say the past four seasons have been turbulent is an understatement, playing for a program that has had three different coaches since he committed in November 2019.

Foster committed to a Mark Dantonio program that had become one of the Big Ten’s best, making 12 bowl games in the coach’s 13 years at the helm as well as making the College Football Playoff in 2015.

Dantonio retired, but Foster stuck around for his replacement Mel Tucker. Then COVID-19 dismantled Foster’s freshman season, a forgettable 2-5 introduction to college ball. The Tucker era peaked in Foster’s second year as the Spartans went 11-2 and won the Peach Bowl. A 5-7 campaign the next season brought spirits down, then gave way to everything falling apart last year when Tucker was fired due to a sexual misconduct scandal.

Now, on a long and winding journey, Foster is a foundational player for Jonathan Smith’s first-year program, mentoring the future of the team he stuck around through thick and thin.

“It’s been crazy. I’m not gonna lie,” Foster said of his journey. “It’s been a rough ride for sure. But I never take any of those moments for granted. I feel like it molded me and shaped me to be a better person, better man, and I’m glad for every moment that I have with everybody.”

Foster is only guaranteed one more game, one more moment. And even though the same can be said of any senior on any team, he really doesn’t want his Michigan State career to end just yet.

In the middle of a career year already, Foster is picking up steam as the season progresses. He scored a touchdown last game against Purdue by straining for a sideline ball on a crossing route. He has recorded 10 catches for 135 yards the past two weeks combined. But it’s really the little plays that illustrate Foster’s urgency.

“I think particularly last game, the thing that jumped out to me was his consistency in the run game,” MSU offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren said Tuesday.

“Those don’t always show up on the stat sheet. … I have a great deal of respect for Montorie, for a guy who will battle his ass off and go block in the run game.”

Truth be told, Foster doesn’t have a whole lot of reps left, blocking for runs or otherwise. He’s making the most of them with the hope to buy a few more through a win.

“I feel like it’s fun, just blocking and running down the field, just playing football,” Foster said. “Like I said, it’s a child’s game. I’m just going out there doing my job and just having fun doing it.”

Foster realizes how privileged he has been to play college football. but he’s also given up so much to play it. He stuck around through highs and lows of the Michigan State program all the same. In the era of the transfer portal, that kind of loyalty isn’t a given.

“For me, it was just really the fans,” Foster said of why he stayed. “I love being here. My family loves being here. They come to all the home games. Everybody loves them, they see my dad in the crowd on the jumbo screen all the time and stuff. So it’s just those little moments.”

It’s ironic that a player who began his career with empty bleachers stuck around for the fans. Maybe it gave him an appreciation for what he has. Maybe he’s proud of what he and his fellow seniors have built. But it’s all nonetheless coming to a head this week against Rutgers, a must-win game for Michigan State to make it to the second bowl game of his career.

“It’s the last one in our home stadium, so we gotta go out with a bang,” Foster said. “And we want to make a bowl game, so it all comes down to us executing and doing our job at the end of the day.”