Trey Lance

Lance was born on May 9, 2000 in Canby, Minnesota.[1] He was trained mainly by his father Carlton, a former cornerback at Southwest Minnesota State University who briefly played in the Canadian Football League and the World League.[1][2] After retiring from play, the elder Lance, originally from Fort Myers, Florida, returned to Marshall, Minnesota, home to both his college team and his wife Angie, whom he had met at Southwest.[2] According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Trey "stood out in a town with little racial diversity", with Carlton being African-American and Angie being white.[3]

The younger Lance had played running back in youth football, and only became a quarterback in middle school. Before his eighth-grade season, his father asked his teammates who could best throw a football; all pointed at one Jake Hess,[1] who went on to become Trey's closest high school friend.[3] When Carlton asked if anyone else wanted to play the position, none were interested, and he then made Trey the backup. He first practiced at the family home, which had a large backyard that allowed throws of up to 30 yards. According to Chase Goodbread of NFL.com,

While Carlton might not have been a quarterback whisperer when it came to the technique needed for a tight spiral, he knew what frustrated cornerbacks about good passers and how to take advantage of poor ones. As such, Trey's backyard education in quarterbacking had less to do with how to throw and more to do with how to beat a defense.[1]

Carlton would tell Goodbread, "The ball just started flying out of his hand, and he could put it wherever I asked him to. He started tearing up my hands. I had to get some gloves after a while."[1]

In high school, Lance was a three-star recruit at Marshall High School. Lance was rated as the 8th best player in Minnesota and the best quarterback in the state.[4] He initially wanted to play at Minnesota, and had been ready to commit there after attending a recruiting event in February 2017. However, he stated in a 2020 interview with NFL.com that P. J. Fleck, then in his first year as Gophers head coach, wanted him to play safety instead of quarterback. Before the event, Lance's entries at several major recruiting websites listed him as a quarterback; during his return to Marshall from the Twin Cities, his position changed to "athlete" on all his entries.[1] Also, Marshall, a traditional power in its enrollment class in Minnesota with a 74–6 regular-season record in the 2010s, ran a mainly run-oriented wing-T offense, and frequently had such large leads that Lance was rarely needed in the second half of his team's games, limiting possible statistical accumulation.[3]

Lance was not considered a quarterback prospect by Power Five programs; most that had an interest in him wanted him as either a wide receiver or defensive back.[2] He received at most two Power Five offers; one source said that his only such offer was from Rutgers,[2] while another said that his only such offer was to play linebacker at Iowa.[1] He did receive offers to play quarterback from several Group of Five FBS programs including Air Force, Boise State, Northern Illinois, and Western Michigan.[2][5] He committed to play college football at North Dakota State University on December 21, 2017.[6]

As a redshirt freshman in 2019, Lance started all 16 games, won the Walter Payton Award and Jerry Rice Award, and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game.[7][8] He also set an all-divisions NCAA record for most passes thrown in a season without giving up an interception (287).[1]

The Bison's 2020 fall season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and so Lance only played 1 non-conference game. The Bison had planned to play a spring 2021 season, but Lance announced that he would forgo his remaining two years of eligibility and enter the 2021 NFL Draft.[9]

Lance is biracial, with an African-American father and white mother. His younger brother Bryce, a senior receiver at Marshall High in 2020–21, has received several scholarship offers, including one from North Dakota State.[1]

According to Thamel, "Those who know him best use 'empathetic' as a defining trait, as he has stood up to bullies in high school, hosted Bible studies on Zoom during the pandemic and says going to children’s hospitals and reading at local schools are among his favorite activities in Fargo." He was a leader of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Marshall High; an FCA regional staff member remarked, "Trey’s identity is not being a football player. It comes from something greater. That helps him stay grounded. He’s not trying to be Superman. He’s going to be Trey Lance." Lance himself added, "Football is not who I am, it’s what I do. I’m obviously going to put everything possible into it because that’s what I love to do. But at the end of the day, I think God put that in my plan to use it as my platform."[3]

• North Dakota State Bison bio