BOZEMAN, Montana — Lane Sumner isn’t faster than you think he is.
Lane Sumner is just plain fast. And if you’ve been paying attention, Saturday’s 176-yard outburst in Montana State’s 40-17 win over McNeese State was not some sort of aberration as much as an affirmation.
For those who have followed along since Sumner first joined the Montana State football team as a former state champion sprinter out of Huntley Project High School, the quick-twitch muscle hamster has always had plenty of juice.
The 5-foot-8, 192-pound former Class B star first caught former MSU head coach Jeff Choate’s eye at individual camp heading into his senior year of high school. During a camp-wide conditioning competition with the goal of finding the fastest player at camp. Sumner, who won back-to-back Class B state titles in the 100 meters, won the competition.
The first time he got an opportunity to get significant carries in a game in September of 2019, he ripped off a 58-yard touchdown run and finished with 113 rushing yards on 11 carries, including a pair of touchdowns in a lopsided MSU win over Norfolk State. That redshirt freshman season, Sumner finished with 425 yards on just 61 carries (7.0 yards per carry) and scored five touchdowns despite never sitting above No. 3 on the depth chart when All-American Isaiah Ifanse and All-Big Sky senior Logan Jones were healthy.
Sumner was expected to be Ifanse’s primary backup a year ago. But he suffered an injury that cost him any ability to contribute significantly in an otherwise historic year for the Bobcat backfield and the Montana State football program. Ifanse rushed for an MSU single-season record 1,623 yards on the way to first-team All-American honors. And Montana State surged all the way to its first FCS title game since 1984. Sumner managed just 40 carries for 141 yards and appeared in just seven of MSU’s 15 games.
The wear and tear caught up to Ifanse by the end of last season, causing him to have off-season knee surgery that has him “month-to-month” according to MSU second-year head coach Brent Vigen.
Kaegun Williams, a graduate transfer from San Diego State, was a late scratch for the opener against McNeese. When Sumner was a redshirt freshman in August of 2019 and never had played in a game, he said “I just have to produce when I get the chance.”
On a “Gold Rush” Saturday night, Sumner once again proved he is more than ready to seize the moment. If not for a pair of holding calls, one that negated 60+ yard touchdown, he might’ve threatened Montana State’s single-game rushing record of 298 yards set by “The Iron Tumbleweed” Don Hass back in 1967.
Either way, Sumner set a career high for himself and had many Bobcat followers who may have forgotten about the quick, explosive one-cut tailback wondering, “just who is this vertically challenged scat back from Eastern Montana?”
“It’s easy to look at him as this steady Eddy guy but he’s much more than that,” Vigen said. “Where I’ve seen him shine more has been, unfortunately not until Saturday, not the game field. It’s been in scrimmages early in the spring year 1 and he followed it up with a good spring and fall this year.
“It didn’t happen for him last fall. He suffered a tough injury down at Wyoming that it took him a couple of weeks to come back from. Then he got hurt again. Really at no point last year, was he 100 percent.
“We feel like when he’s 100 percent, he has excellent feet, the ability to show explosion. In the weight room, he’s an explosive guy for a smaller guy. I think he’s got good vision….He’s just that type of guy where we felt that whenever his opportunity would come up, he would take it.”
Sumner has 129 carries over the last three-plus seasons. He has rushed for 747 yards and five scores in his Bobcat career, averaging 5.8 yards per carry along the way. Yet he’s had to sit in the shadow of Ifanse or battle injury for most of his time in blue and gold.
“Ze (Ifanse) is the standard. We all chase that,” Sumner said. “So all of us, we see how he goes about his business. And that’s our goal: that there’s no drop off. And obviously, not all of us are All-Americans. But we strive for that. And we pride ourselves on that. And I think there’s a lot of dudes in that room that can ball.”
One of those dudes is Jared White, a true freshman from Frisco, Texas who as the leading rusher in Texas 5A in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, one of the most prolific producers of football and running back talent in the nation. White has performed so favorably, he was able to leapfrog sophomore Elijiah Elliott and redshirt freshman Garrett Coon on the depth chart.
Sumner had 24 of MSU’s 59 rushing attempts while sophomore quarterback Tommy Mellott had 16 carries and Wildcat quarterback Sean Chambers had seven more. White had seven carries, including a 48-yard run that helped him average 12.7 yards per tote and compile 89 rushing yards yards.
“I love the dude, love how he runs. It’s kind of like Ze does, especially for a true freshman,” Sumner said with a grin. “He’s got a great future in front of him.”
No matter how much Sumner wanted to deflect in the post-game press conference though, those who have followed closely know he is perfectly capable of not just serving as a serviceable fill in, but instead dominating the action when his number is called.
“Lane Sumner I absolutely love, a guy who’s a meat and potatoes guy who has gotten faster, gotten quicker, taken care of his body,” MSU second-year offensive coordinator Taylor Housewright said. “You ask him to run through a wall, he will do it. And when he breaks through the other side, he can beat you in a race to the end-zone.”
Sumner has won many races in his life. Winning a race at camp several summers ago helped land him a shot with the Bobcats. If he can win the race for who will be the bell cow for the Bobcats with Ifanse on the shelf indefinitely and Williams’ future uncertain, Montana State won’t have to worry about who’s carrying the mail in the Bobcat backfield this fall.
“We wanted him to have opportunities and we knew he would take advantage,” Vigen said. “Now we need to be able to balance those opportunities out. But I’m really pleased for Lane and I think this is just the beginning.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez, Jason Bacaj and Blake Hempstead. All Rights Reserved.
