But before he was holding up a midnight green jersey in Chicago, he was one of the most recognizable faces associated with NDSU football.

Wentz, who first picked up a football in Bismarck, North Dakota, was only the starter for two seasons with the Bison, but he did plenty to leave his mark on the program: two national championships; All-America honors from several outlets; single-season records in passing attempts, completions, yards and total offense per game; and not to mention multiple academic accolades.

Wentz plans to bring that talent with him to Washington, which is banking on him being the right quarterback to help it reach the postseason for the second time in three seasons. But Wentz is coming with more than a bunch of old records and a flashy gold jacket; he's bringing steadfast leadership as well as a gritty desire to win and to help his teammates succeed.

Wentz is known for those traits as well, and they were first developed as a kid trying to make a name for himself at NDSU.

"I put my best foot forward and let the chips fall where they may," Wentz said. "That's the mindset I've had ever since I was in college playing ball and got to the league, so that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put my head down, work, build relationships and hopefully look up at the end of the year and be happy with the result."

The first time Vigen spoke to Wentz was when he was invited to an NDSU game during his senior year.

"It was unorthodox recruiting, needless to say, where you don't meet a kid until he comes to a game in the fall," Vigen said.

Once Vigen started paying more attention to Wentz, he noticed there was a lot to like about him. He clearly had the right tools; he was an all-state quarterback who led his team to an 8-3 record and a trip to the semifinals.

"I kind of came out of nowhere to a lot of teams," Wentz said. "But it felt right [with NDSU] when they started talking to me. It felt like home. And honestly...I wanted to compete for championships, and I wanted to win."

But there were other parts of Wentz that stuck out to Vigen even more. "He believed in himself more than anyone believed in him," Vigen said, and Wentz's willingness to fill whatever role required of him on his high school basketball team also impressed him.

That, along with his high level of intelligence, convinced NDSU to pursue him further even though they already had a commitment at quarterback. They officially gave Wentz an offer in December of his senior year.

"I think we knew we had something," Vigen said. "It was raw, but we really had something with just this combination of his physical skills and then kind of who he was as a person."

Vigen wanted Wentz to fine tune that skill, so he challenged the young quarterback to round out the rest of his game while working on the scout team.

"He had to rely on a more consistent lower body to be able to improve his accuracy," Vigen said. "It was about just being more consistent and really working on his lower body mechanics."

Wentz had a knack for understanding the game, too. He always seemed to be one step ahead of where a normal underclassman was supposed to be, not just in the meeting room, but also on the field.

"He's a very quick learner and a smart guy," said former Bison wide receiver Zach Vraa. "He took from the other quarterbacks [and] learned a lot from them. I think once he just studied more and more that's when his game kind of progressed from just being an athlete into a really good football player."

Vraa was a sophomore when Wentz first joined NDSU and was on the scout team with the quarterback. Vraa dealt with injuries early in his career, so their time together early on was brief, but the chemistry they built proved to be invaluable once they both became starters.

Vraa learned quickly that Wentz could sling the ball downfield with ease, but what impressed him more was how Wentz worked in the pocket. He described Wentz's operation with one word: "smooth."

"The way he ran, his stride was so long. His arms were so long. It's not like he had a bunch of zip on the ball. But since he was so long and lanky and broad, he was just very smooth with the way that he threw the ball and moved around the field."

By the time he was a sophomore, Wentz had undergone a significant change, developing from an intriguing prospect to a rare talent. He learned how to throw different passes and how to work with his receivers to thrive within the offense.

That led to him getting snaps as the backup quarterback, although he still had to wait another year before he would be considered as the starter. NDSU went on to win its third national championship, and Jensen set school records for passing yards (2,793), passing touchdowns (34) and total offense yards (3,272).

Jensen never allowed the possibility of Wentz taking over as the starter to creep into anyone's mind while he was there, although it could be argued that Wentz was ready to be the primary signal-caller. Vigen said Wentz pushed Jensen, and he credits Wentz for a lot of the success Jensen had in their time together.

Despite being confident in his own ability, Wentz was patient and continued to work on his skill set.

"It's so unique," Vigen said. "Just his mindset of understanding that, 'Hey, I love being part of this team. My time will come, but if it comes sooner than it might because of graduation, I'm gonna be as ready as I possibly can.' I think that's a pretty rare quality. I don't think it hardly would exist in today's world."

Now, as the starter, Wentz had to build that bond with more people, and Vraa said he had no problem going out of his way to improve relationships.

"We were able to give him our preferences and he was able to just kind of play along with that and help us win at the end of the day, which was really nice instead of just him throwing it and we have to kind of guess where it's going," Vraa said.

Wentz's first game as a starter was against Iowa State, and Wentz threw for 204 yards while leading the offense to 34 unanswered point to claim the victory.

"It felt like of like a long time coming," Wentz said. "I'd been in school for three years waiting for this moment. There was a lot of excitement. I felt like I had a lot of natural leadership, but I was the backup, so I couldn't quite be myself. I felt like a lot of that kind of came out, and I finally got to be what I felt like I was called to do."

Wentz took that knowledge into the meeting rooms, and it helped set the standard for how NDSU quarterbacks ran the offense after him. He had input on what the offense did on third downs and in the red zone during practice, and that carried over to game day.

That's not to say that Wentz was giving out 25 play calls per game and superseding the coaching staff. He was respectful of what offensive coordinator Tim Polasek was calling and would run it without hesitation, but he would offer suggestions on how they could attack defenses.

"That's where I started gaining such a trust [in him] because of his preparation," Polasek said. "I think young players...don't necessarily know how to devise a plan, but to be able to talk about formations, whether you want to be in open or want to be in tight formations, he just always had a really good feel for that based on the looks that he was looking at."

And Wentz appreciated how much input he was allowed to have. It was a back-and-forth relationship that he and the coaches had to find the best way to approach the game plan each week.

"That's how you get stuff done," Wentz said. "I think there is such thing as a healthy conflict or healthy disagreements if you can communicate without an ego, um, to try and learn and understand better. Sometimes I'm wrong, and I'll admit when I'm wrong. Oftentimes there's more than one right answer in this game. So I think it was healthy to have that dynamic."

Wentz paired that knowledge with his natural athleticism, and that mixture showed often on the field. He completed 228-of-358 passes for 3,111 yards -- all single-season school records -- with 25 touchdowns and led the Bison to another national championship. It was one of the best seasons a Bison quarterback has ever had, but there were moments where his mixture of savvy and athleticism stood out among the rest.

There was a particular play where the Bison would run a route combination that forced the safety to choose between the slot receiver, who would run a go route, or Vraa, the outside receiver, who would run across the field.

As it became clear that Vraa would be Wentz's top option on the play, he turned and saw three defenders between him and Wentz. Vraa immediately thought there was no way the pass would be complete, but Wentz scrambled, zipped the ball between all three players and hit Vraa for a gain.

"After that play, I'm thinking to myself, 'if this guy can scramble, throw a ball between three defenders and somehow hit a receiver dead on, he's got a future," Vraa said.

Two-minute drills were when Wentz had more freedom to call plays himself. Polasek said Wentz had a firm grasp of knowing what he liked in their inventory of plays and was comfortable in orchestrating them.

That comfortability gave his teammates confidence that he could get them in the end zone when it mattered most.

"We knew that he was such a smart guy, and he could call plays on the fly," Vraa said. "He was at the point [in] his senior year where he didn't really have to rely on our offensive coordinator or head coach to call a play. We had faith in him."

For Wentz, the mindset is simple in those situations: just go win.

"Find a way," Wentz said. "I think it's not always gonna look pretty, and quite frankly, you just forget everything that happened, whether it's good or bad."

Wentz added that there is not a lot of overthinking in those situations. He is just lining up, playing fast and cutting things loose.

"For me, it's...any means necessary within reason. Protect myself, but by any means necessary, whether that's a check down or taking shots, I'm gonna get my team in the end zone."

Most of NDSU's games during Wentz's college career ended with the Bison winning handedly, but there were some moments where Wentz had to pull out wins in the final moments. One of the most memorable came in the second round of the 2014 FCS playoffs against South Dakota State, when he led NDSU on an eight-play, 76-yard drive and threw a game-winning touchdown that Hedberg describes as the best play he's seen in his 40 years of coaching

"It was so slow motion-like," Hedberg said. "But the precision and execution was so great on it."

There was another -- this time against Northern Iowa in NDSU's homecoming the following season -- that was just as memorable. It wasn't just because of the throw, which was an 18-yard touchdown to redshirt freshman Darrius Shepherd with 35 seconds left; it was also special because of the reaction it received in the booth.

"I remember an NFL scout...turned to us when the touchdown was thrown and caught, raised his arms up in the air like, 'what a play,'" Hedberg said.

There are some certainties about how Wentz will operate under center for the Commanders. He's going to establish bonds with his receivers to help them succeed. His NDSU coaches and teammates described him as having a "serving mentality," so he's going to do whatever he can to put them in the best position.

He's also going to work with offensive coordinator Scott Turner and the rest of the Commanders' coaches on a game plan that helps Washington win games. He'll use his own experience to provide input on how they can put up points and move downfield, but he'll rely on the coaches to craft a plan that works for everyone.

And when Washington needs someone to make a play, he won't shy away from calling his own number. He will be confident in his skill set, and that will spread to the rest of the team.

The Commanders believe they can take a step forward this season. They're going to need all those qualities from Wentz to do it.

"You're gonna get a guy that's committed to the Commanders," Hedberg said. "Every game that he is out there, he's gonna give you everything he has. There's no question about that."