PREPS ALCOVE

Part of powerhouse North Dakota State, Mukwonago grad Nate Tanguay hopes to see teammate taken No. 1 in NFL Draft

Now Media Group

 On April 28, Nate Tanguay and his football teammates will gather for a celebration that he hopes ends almost immediately.

"Hopefully the party only lasts 10 minutes," the sophomore Mukwonago native at North Dakota State said. "We're going to support him, watch him somewhere. It's a great thing that he can do this for the team, but as well as the state of North Dakota. He's definitely a lot of people's hero here."

He's talking about NDSU quarterback Carson Wentz, one of two clear candidates to become the No. 1 overall selection in the 2016 NFL Draft. The Los Angeles Rams, who traded up to get the top pick, have not been shy that a quarterback is atop their wish list. That would seem to pare down the selection between Wentz and Jared Goff of California.

Wentz would become the first player from an FCS program selected first overall if he's chosen. Even if that doesn't come to pass, he figures to find a new home early in the draft, likely no later than the No. 7 pick (San Francisco 49ers) and likely much higher.

"When he redshirted as a freshman, the defensive coordinator said he was the best quarterback he went up against the entire year," Tanguay said. "So he's been surprising people and showing off since he got there. He only played one year of quarterback in high school, too, so he was just naturally gifted at the position because he's such a smart guy. He's so intelligent with his reads and the plays that are going on and the coverages and the blitzes that people are throwing at him. He can do whatever he wants off of it on the field. He makes all his own checks. He's just an intelligent player and an even better guy."

FCS powerhouse

 The program he represents would certainly be worthy of a top overall selection. NDSU has won the championship in the FCS – formerly NCAA Division I-AA – five consecutive years, most recently with a 37-10 win over Jacksonville State this past season. National titles are all Tanguay has known since he began working in the program three years ago.

Like the more familiar Division III powerhouse University of Wisconsin-Whitewater program closer to home, winning at the highest level is the goal every year for the Bison.

"You never want to disappoint the guy next to you," Tanguay said. "Our team has always had a really close bond. The alumni come back. We get five or six alumni here every year, just talking about the past. We don't want to let those guys down because of how hard they worked and the national championships they've won. It's more than just our 2015 or 2016 team, it's from the 1960s on, the legacy they created. We know our only option is to win a national championship and a conference championship. We can't have losses."

The program, with 13 national titles to its name, got off to a rocky start this past year when it lost its first game in a thriller to open the season, a 38-35 outcome against Montana. Tanguay, who recorded 45 tackles this year and five for loss, has started all 16 games since his redshirt year, and he was certainly a part of keeping the Bison on course.

"We had a really young defense this past year, a really young team in general," Tanguay said. "We were maturing throughout the season. Finally toward the end, we started hitting our stride. I think I was one of three returning guys or four returning guys that were going to start on the defense. And I was still young, I was a sophomore, and they asked me to do a lot in a leadership role, and that normally doesn't happen for a sophomore. We started growing up as a team, as a unit, playing harder and faster and more together, and that definitely helped us with a national championship."

From Wentz he came

Another part of that equation was certainly Wentz, who passed for 1,651 yards and 17 touchdowns in eight games. But a wrist injury cost him half his season, and still the Bison lost only once more.

 "People just look at the name, FCS, and automatically think of that as down a level from a lot of these teams," Tanguay said. "Obviously, FBS has a lot of great teams, you have those teams that are great every year. But nobody looks at the bottom three quarters of (FBS), which is basically FCS (in caliber of play). We're better than a lot of those teams. In the Sagarin Ratings (a popular computerized ranking system), we've been top 25 the last few years. We prove ourselves day in and day out."

NDSU has defeated five straight FBS opponents and seven of nine, and they'll get another chance against Iowa in 2016. In the Sagarin system, NDSU finished 36th this year, ahead of programs such as Pittsburgh, Arizona State, Nebraska, Virginia Tech and Miami of Florida, and just behind programs like California, from which Goff hails. The Goff-Wentz debate has been the biggest pre-draft storyline since the Rams assumed control of the top pick last week.

"He's extremely humble guy, so he doesn't like talking about it too much, but he's very confident," Tanguay said of Wentz. "I don't know how you could be (disappointed) going No. 1 or No. 2 (another strong possibility for Wentz). He's going to sign his name and be a great player in the NFL. At least to me, if a team passes him up, they're missing someone who's going to be a great player in the NFL. I would definitely take him No. 1. Goff is also an extremely good player, so I can see why teams would want to take him, as well.

"The day after (the Rams announced they had traded for the top pick), he's in the weight room with us, doing all the stuff, working hard seven days a week. He doesn't let anything get to his head, and that's why he's going to be a great player."

It will also be the third straight year NDSU has had a player drafted, and Tanguay said the presence of those players has snowballed scouting interest around the program. Coupled with the home facility of the Fargodome, one of three domed venues in the Missouri Valley Conference, it's easy to see why a high-school recruit would choose NDSU, enabling the program to maintain its elite level.

"Carson getting drafted that high, that's huge for recruiting high-school players," Tanguay said. "That leaves a mark on a program, especially a smaller school that's been working its way up and beating teams like Big 12 teams, Big Ten teams."

Check out a full interview with Nate Tanguay on the Initial Reaction podcast in its NFL Draft preview April 26 at LakeCountryNow.com.

Pictured: Top: Tanguay lines up for NDSU against Youngstown State earlier this year. Middle: Tanguay (both photos courtesy of North Dakota State). Below: Carson Wentz throws a pass during the NDSU pro day in late March. Photo by Associated Press.