# Trent Fraley leading Michigan State football, like his dad with Lions
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It didn’t take long for Fitzgerald to pounce once Fraley entered the portal in late December. As the former Northwestern coach alluded to Monday, they don’t just hand out Rimingtons like post-practice snacks.
“I think there was an automatic high level of respect from his teammates when he arrived,” Fitzgerald said of Trent. “And then the way he’s worked since Day 1 – this guy, if you guys met him face-to-face without his pads, if you look up O-lineman in the dictionary and it’s him. He’s got a big-ass neck, and he’s just a big ol’ burly offensive lineman.
“He just exudes it. His dad was obviously a great player, a great coach. It’s just in their blood and their DNA as a family. And that’s just how [Trent] rolls. There’s not a lot of nonsense with him, he’s kind of right down the middle.
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Trent Fraley remembered a warm morning one summer in Minnesota, when he was in fifth or sixth grade. He and his brothers wanted to go enjoy their break from school.
First things first, however. His father, Hank, made sure they got in a workout.
“He’s like, all right, let’s go down to this grass field we have,” Trent said. “And I’m out there doing four-cone drills – springing, shuffle, backpedal, all of that.”
It might not have made sense at the time. But the older the new center for Michigan State football gets, the more he reaps the benefits from those sessions. Hank, an 11-year NFL vet who’s now the Detroit Lions’ offensive line coach, was already sculpting – and sharpening – his sons’ work ethic.
“I think I realize now why,” the fifth-year senior, who transferred from North Dakota State this summer, said with a laugh Monday, Aug. 24. “It definitely helped me get to where I am today.”
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So far, it has taken Trent Fraley from an underrecruited high school player at Moon High School in Pennsylvania to the best center in the Football Championship Subdivision at NDSU. He won the Rimington Award as the nation’s top center last year in his second season with the Bison, then entered the portal for the second time in his college career.
Fraley now brings those skills to Pat Fitzgerald’s program as one of six captains (named Monday) and to serve as the nerve center of an overhauled offensive line the Spartans hope will take them back to a bowl for the first time since 2021. Much the same way his father has done with the Lions since joining the organization in 2018 and rising to the leader of the Lions’ line.
Trent texted his dad Monday soon after he learned he would be one of MSU’s captains. His younger brother, Mason, also is an offensive lineman and captain, at Division II West Liberty (near Pittsburgh), after starring at Salem High in Canton.
“I think it’s one of the best honors you can ever get when playing sports, to become a team captain. Especially when it’s voted on by the team, the players,” Hank said by phone Wednesday. “It just says a lot about the respect [Trent] gained from the players. Because when you play this game, you don’t do it for that – ‘Hey, let me get the team captain.