After the dramatic 29-27 win over Illinois State in last season’s NCAA Division I Football Championship title game, Bison fans anticipated his senior year would be something special.

With his football strengths getting noticed by the higher powers in the NFL, Wentz needed to stay healthy, play better football than he had his previous year and win football games.

This season didn’t start off well, but the loss happened early enough in the year that the green and gold could bounce back.

Wentz and the team teed-off on North Dakota State’s next three opponents and squeezed out a three-point win on homecoming against a tough University of Northern Iowa team.

The team was rolling, until it wasn’t.

A week later, the Bison had a hiccup and lost to University of South Dakota. Wentz suffered the worst loss of the game. He broke a bone in his throwing wrist, throwing the season in limbo.

Freshman quarterback Easton Stick has righted the ship and that unsettling feeling fans felt the week Wentz went down has passed, but it may come back just before 2:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday.

Counting today, three days from now 14 North Dakota State student-athletes will run out of the inflatable Bison helmet for their last regular season game.

“They were the first group that really went down to Frisco and sat in the stands and saw a championship team,” head coach Chris Klieman said. “In 2011, a lot of those guys were on scout team and did a phenomenal job and really developed and worked their way through as a developmental player to get an opportunity to play.

“Some of them have played for four years and some of them have played just a year or two, and they’re really special to me because that was really my first class as well, all those kids were red-shirted during my first year, and I obviously wouldn’t be in the position that I am (now) without those guys.”

Luke Albers, Darius Anderson, Andrew Bonnet, Jordan Champion, Jedre Cyr, Joe Haeg, Jeremy Kelly, Ben LeCompte, Nate Moody, Brock Russell, Brian Schaetz, CJ Smith and Zach Vraa.

The thought of these 13 student-athletes graduating and moving on to the next part of their lives is bittersweet.

The 14th senior alphabetically on the team, Wentz, will probably have the hardest time walking out on the Gate City Bank Field with screaming his name because he won’t be in uniform for the regular season finale for NDSU.

“I know it’ll be a difficult game for Carson,” Klieman said, comparing Wentz’s situation to Grant Olson’s in 2013. “The likelihood of (Wentz) playing probably isn’t very good, so it’ll be a difficult day, but he needs to be honored because he’s been a huge part of what we’ve done.”

No one knows what his thoughts are going to be when the Dome’s lights go down.

Maybe he’ll be thinking about his injury, and if it didn’t happen, what could’ve been.

Maybe he’ll be thinking about all the late nights with Easton Stick in the film room, and teaching the redshirt freshman how to read Missouri Valley Football Conference defenses.

Or maybe Wentz won’t be thinking anything; maybe he’ll just be in the moment and trying to soak up all the energy that will be filled in that stadium.

Whatever his thoughts may be, Wentz and the 13 seniors have been apart of 52 wins over the past four years.

So, maybe his final thoughts as he reaches midfield inside the Fargodome will be, “This senior class may be the smallest, but damn, we are good.”