Nathan Hayes has spent his college career learning how much alignment matters.
As an exercise science major who plans to attend chiropractic school, he studies how the body moves and how small adjustments can create lasting results.
As a quarterback, the concept is just as important. Align the protection. Set the feet. Square the shoulders. Put the football where it needs to be.
For four seasons at North Dakota State, Hayes has also worked to align preparation with patience. He arrived in Fargo knowing the history of the position, then waited behind quarterbacks who continued adding to it. He redshirted, stood third on the depth chart, became the backup and made the most of the opportunities that came his way.
Now the opportunity is finally his.
Only the job Hayes spent years preparing to inherit no longer looks quite like the one he originally signed up for.
In February, North Dakota State accepted an invitation to join the Mountain West as a football-only member, setting in motion the largest transition in program history. Hayes is no longer just preparing to become the next quarterback at one of the most successful programs in the FCS.
He is positioned to become the quarterback who leads the Bison into their first FBS season.
Before Hayes can begin prepping for the NFL Draft and ultimately adjusting backs and necks for a living, he will be responsible for directing an entire football program through one of the biggest adjustments it has ever made.
The news initially seemed too familiar to be real.
“It’s fake,” Hayes recalled thinking when he first heard the Mountain West reports. “This happens every year. Every year, someone tweets out, ‘NDSU is going to the Mountain West.’”
Then the coaches called a team meeting.
“Oh, boy,” Hayes remembered. “This is actually happening.”
When the announcement was made, the room erupted. Players celebrated, then returned to their regularly scheduled weight room workouts.
“Just a different vibe, same work,” Hayes said. “Everybody was just a little more excited, just a little more eager to work and to prove ourselves in this conference. We’re not just here to get by or win a few games. We’re in the Mountain West to compete, to win the Mountain West and to get that College Football Playoff spot.”
That combination of big ambitions, followed immediately by more work, is part of what attracted Hayes to North Dakota State.
His recruitment began with a call from longtime Bison quarterbacks coach Randy Hedberg, who asked whether Hayes planned to attend an NDSU camp. Hayes agreed, researched the program and found a quarterback history that demanded his attention. A few weeks later, then-assistant David Braun called with an offer and later made a home visit that resonated with Hayes and his family.
“We knew it was the place to be right away,” Hayes said.
What North Dakota State offered was more than immediate playing time or a subdivision label. It offered a proven path.
“When I got recruited, you saw that long line of FBS wins – Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Minnesota,” Hayes said. “You’re like, ‘These guys can play with anybody.’ You see guys like Carson (Wentz) making a huge impact and winning a Super Bowl in the NFL.
“I never thought, ‘I’m just going to an FCS team.’ I thought, ‘I’m an FBS player going to the best situation to put myself in position for my future, to win games and to live out a dream.’”
The quarterback tradition Hayes saw from a distance only grew after he arrived.
Carson Wentz, Easton Stick and Trey Lance established the standard, and Cam Miller and Cole Payton continued the line. NDSU head coach Tim Polasek has pointed to the rarity of that run.
“We’ve been fortunate,” Polasek said. “We’ve had five straight drafted. We are one of three programs that have had five drafted in the last 10 years. It has been us, Alabama and Ohio State.”
The lineage creates pressure, but Hayes has learned not to carry all of it.
“You don’t have to be Cole. You don’t have to be Cam,” Hayes said of the message he hears from the coaching staff. “You don’t have to be the guys who came before that – Trey, Easton, Carson. You just have to be you by making the plays that need to be made.”
Being himself required Hayes to remain patient during an era when quarterbacks can enter the transfer portal at the first sign of a crowded depth chart.
He redshirted in 2022 and remained the No. 3 quarterback in 2023. He began 2024 in the same position before becoming the backup for the final eight games following an injury to Payton.
The opportunities were sporadic, but the flashes were clear. Hayes passed for 141 yards and two touchdowns at Murray State and broke loose for a 51-yard touchdown run against Tennessee State. In 2025, he appeared in 10 games, completing 25 of 44 passes for 381 yards and four touchdowns, including a career-long 68-yard score.
“I’ve said it before, he really has some ‘wow’ factors as a quarterback and as an athlete,” Polasek said. “He’s extremely talented.”
Hayes also has gotten it done in the classroom, making the Missouri Valley Football Conference Honor Roll in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and receiving the league’s Commissioner’s Academic Excellence Award in 2024.
The years behind established starters also showed Hayes how North Dakota State sustains success: The Bison pass the program from one class to the next.
“It’s a huge player-led program, so a lot of the learning comes from the older guys,” Hayes said. “We keep passing down knowledge. That’s why we’re able to keep winning every year and keep reloading – because of how much knowledge is passed down and how much attention to detail everybody gives.”
Hayes is now among the older players responsible for passing it along as NDSU enters a league filled with unfamiliar opponents and elevated weekly expectations.
“Now we get to play in those big games every week,” Hayes said. “We’re going to have a blast preparing and a blast playing with all my best friends, all my brothers. Getting the opportunity to play a huge game every week is a dream come true.”
Those closest to Hayes know there is more to him than football.
He hunts, works on a Rubik’s Cube, loves music and once played trumpet and upright bass. He is also an enthusiastic cook, comfortable making ribs, brisket, salmon and seafood boils for friends and roommates.
“I try to dabble in a little bit of everything and see what I like,” Hayes said. “I think that just makes you an overall better person and more personable with people of different likenesses.”
Mountain West fans will soon become familiar with Hayes. They will also become acquainted with the environment he calls home.
He describes the Fargodome and the community in three words: “Electric, loud, cold.”
The last description came with a warning directed toward Hawaii, which will eventually need to make a trip to Fargo.
“Leave those flip-flops or slippahs at home,” Hayes joked. “Bring a parka. It’s cold outside in Fargo.”
Hayes promises a warm introduction from Bison fans, at least until the visiting offense takes the field.
“Our tailgate is like no other,” Hayes said. “Our fans love their beer up there, and it makes the fans that much rowdier. They’re not afraid to shout when the opposing team’s offense is on the field on third down.”
When North Dakota State has the ball, the building changes.
“You can hear a pin drop,” Hayes said. “We have the best fans in the world.”
Soon, Hayes will step into that silence with the offense awaiting his direction.
He will do so after four years spent observing, studying and preparing. He has seen how successful quarterbacks command the huddle, respond to mistakes and make the routine plays that allow the spectacular ones to matter. He has learned that leading North Dakota State does not require impersonating the quarterbacks whose names came before his.
It requires understanding what they passed down and deciding what he will add.
Hayes waited for his opportunity to lead the Bison. North Dakota State waited for its opportunity to move onto the FBS stage.
Now the quarterback and the program arrive there together, properly prepared, finally in position and perhaps perfectly aligned.