Recruit Rewind: Detailing Saf. Dejuan Lane's path to Penn State

Penn State will kick off spring practice in just over two weeks from now. With a little over a week remaining in the February dead period, plus spring break from March 3-9, head coach James Franklin and his staff have just a few more weeks to focus on their current roster before on-campus recruiting starts up again.

With that in mind, we’re looking back on Penn State’s Class of 2024 these next few weeks, profiling all 25 players. Today, we’ll recap Baltimore native Dejuan Lane’s path to becoming a Nittany Lion.

Dejuan Lane
Safety
6-2, 205
Gilman School
Jessup, Md.

Rankings	Stars	National	Position	State
On3 Industry	****	326	26	10
On3	****	N/R	30	11
ESPN	****	251	15	6
Rivals	****	N/R	31	12
247Sports	****	N/R	31	11

Statistics

• Totaled 61 tackles, one interception for a touchdown, five offensive touchdowns and a blocked field goal during senior season.

Notable

• Four-year letterman
• Team captain as a senior
• Earned MIAA All-Conference honors as a sophomore, junior and senior

Recruitment

• Committed to Penn State on June 4, 2023
• Recruited by Anthony Poindexter
• Picked Penn State over Notre Dame, Maryland, Georgia and Michigan
• Officially visited on June 2, 2023

Projection: At 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, Lane brings length to Penn State’s safeties room. But when you add in the fact that he doesn’t enroll until the summer, that’ll likely impact Lane’s ability to contribute right away. However, It wouldn’t shock us if he finds a role on special teams early on and then ends up fighting for a starting job in a few years.

Gilman Head Coach Scott Van Zile: “Dejuan possesses a very rare combination of size, speed and ability that make him one of the top prospects in the country. He has had a huge impact on not only Gilman football, but Gilman Athletics as a whole, being a three-sport standout. His leadership and competitive spirit has left a great impact on our program and we are looking forward to cheering him on at Penn State.” 

Get to know Penn State Saf. Dejuan Lane

Safety Dejuan Lane would be the first to tell you that he’s not much of a talker. While so many other prospects focus on self-promotion and building a brand in the NIL era, Lane prefers to let his play on the field do the talking. 

Throughout his recruitment, which lasted just over a year, Lane did maybe five interviews total between the three major recruiting sites and local newspapers discussing his recruitment. To him, that’s all just a distraction. At the end of the day, improving himself on and off the field is all that matters. Do that and everything else will take care of itself.

For a school like Penn State, that mindset fits well. Back in May 2022, the Nittany Lions were just the third Power Five school to offer Lane at the time. That gave safeties coach Anthony Poindexter an early edge over many of the schools that interested Lane the most.

“One of the main things that really caught my interest is that they were one of my first offers. Ever since then, Coach Poindexter and a bunch of other assistants were real consistent with me,” Lane said.

Ultimately earning more than two dozen scholarship offers, Lane visited once in November 2022 and wouldn’t return to campus again until his official visit seven months later. Publicly, little was known about where the Lions stood. But privately, Lane already had a good feel for where he wanted to go.

“There were a couple other schools,” Lane said. “I’d say the main ones were Georgia, Michigan, Maryland and Notre Dame. Maryland was pushing hard for an official visit, and I was looking into setting that up, but I also knew by then that Penn State was where I wanted to go.”

He went on to add, “Penn State was always pretty much number one on the list. Ever since I went there, they sparked something that had me leaning in their direction. That kind of made it easy for me.”

His relationship with Poindexter was a major reason why.

“One thing I really looked for in the coaches that recruited me was that they weren’t just talking about football,” Lane said. “I always wanted to hear more about what the school could offer me outside of football. With Coach Dex, yeah, we talked about football and what I could do for them, but the main thing was just that we built a great connection, a friendship.”

A three-time MIAA all-conference selection, Lane finished his senior season with more than 60 tackles. He made plays all over the field, taking interceptions back for touchdowns, blocking field goals and contributing at wide receiver. 

Lane won’t enroll until the summer, so he’ll need time to adjust to the college level, but if his nickname is any indication of what fans can expect, there’s reason to be excited.

“I’d tell Penn State fans that my nickname, ‘Sparkplug,’ holds true. One thing they can expect from me is to always bring the energy. I plan to bring a [championship] to Penn State.”