Comparing Bruce and Lance's total career yards:
Bruce
ALL PURPOSE |
GP |
RUSH |
RCV |
PR |
KR |
IR |
TOTAL |
AVG/G |
2015 |
15 |
503 |
55 |
0 |
585 |
0 |
1143 |
76.2 |
2016 |
9 |
253 |
38 |
0 |
363 |
0 |
654 |
72.7 |
2017 |
15 |
1216 |
156 |
0 |
193 |
0 |
1565 |
104.3 |
2018 |
13 |
924 |
199 |
0 |
219 |
0 |
1342 |
103.2 |
Total |
52 |
2896 |
448 |
0 |
1360 |
0 |
4704 |
90.5 |
Lance
ALL PURPOSE |
GP |
RUSH |
RCV |
PR |
KR |
IR |
TOTAL |
AVG/G |
2015 |
13 |
468 |
26 |
0 |
31 |
0 |
525 |
40.4 |
2016 |
14 |
996 |
101 |
0 |
43 |
0 |
1140 |
81.4 |
2017 |
8 |
684 |
44 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
728 |
91.0 |
2018 |
13 |
880 |
150 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
1044 |
80.3 |
Total |
48 |
3028 |
321 |
0 |
88 |
0 |
3437 |
71.6 |
Judging by these numbers, Bruce's Kick Returning helps his case, but also something that hasn't been mentioned yet, is the timing of their respective major injuries. Bruce injured his ankle pretty bad his Sophomore season and recovered to have great Junior and Senior seasons. Meanwhile, Lance severely injured his hip midway through his Junior season after being a man on a mission (he was a major TD machine at the time). I'm not sure he has completely recovered from that injury. Had the hip injury never occurred, I'm not sure Bruce goes on to have a monster Junior season and a great Senior season as Lance up to that time seemed (and I could be wrong here) to be the 1A RB.
Therefore, Bruce's return game and the timing of their respective injuries might be the reason why Anderson is the NDSU RB that NFL scouts are looking at instead of Lance. If Lance doesn't hurt his hip, the sky might have been the limit for him. Both were great players for NDSU and I'm glad we got to witness their contributions.