The North Dakota State Bison won’t be playing football this fall, which means a top quarterback prospect will miss a golden opportunity to put himself in the same conversation as one of his predecessors.
Trey Lance is coming off an impressive redshirt freshman campaign that saw him toss 28 interceptions and no interceptions, leading many to consider him one of the top quarterback prospects in the 2021 NFL Draft class.
The last time the Bison had such buzz swirling about a prospect was back in 2016, when Carson Wentz was the No. 2 overall pick.
Wentz spoke to the media Monday after training camp practice with the Philadelphia Eagles, and was asked about Lance, as well as the challenges facing the college football world amid the COVID-19 pandemic (via INFORUM’s Eric Peterson):
It’s not a position that I’d want to be in. I know that. I know those kids, they want to play, they want to play so badly and I don’t know what the right answer is. I don’t have the answers, but in my opinion, they can still get the virus living their life as a normal college kid, whether they’re at school playing football or back home. There’s always pros and cons and there’s risks involved in everything.
Thankfully, I’m not. It’s a tough situation. Just college football in general is tough. It’s tough on a lot of kids, it’s tough on the universities from funding to what do you do with scholarships next year and guys coming in and guys having extra years.
I know Trey pretty well. I’ll get a chance to talk to him here probably soon about what the situation is. We’ve talked along the way as well.
Wentz’s draft stock was helped considerably by his performance at the Senior Bowl which followed a strong senior campaign for the Bison. Without a transfer, Lance would have to wait to see if the Bison would be able to have a spring season, which could force him to put off any jump to the NFL until the following offseason.
That’s not out of the realm of possibility anyway for a redshirt sophomore, no matter how talented, but it does present unique challenges for one of the most talked-about prospects in the nation at a pivotal point in his career.
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