In high school, Rayuan Lane loved football. He did not particularly care for the military.
But as a Class of 2021 member, Lane had the pressure of going through the recruiting process during the coronavirus pandemic. He attended Gilman, which only played two games before its season shut down.
A few colleges — Georgetown, Howard, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, Buffalo and UConn — offered Lane. So did Army and Navy.
At the time, the Midshipmen’s star shone bright. The Miami Dolphins drafted Navy quarterback Malcolm Perry in April 2020, around seven months before Lane officially made his decision.
“The whole military aspect, I didn’t really pay attention or want to do anything like that,” Lane said this week. “I just wanted to play football. That was really the only reason I came here.”
But then, the 2020 winter thawed to summer 2021, and Lane stepped onto the academy grounds. Training alongside Marines at Camp Lejeune, climbing into jets, hearing the word “sacrifice” and beginning to comprehend what it all meant — the plebe’s “eyes opened.”
“My experience here started off as one thing,” he said, “and definitely grew to something so much better.”
Lane is currently Navy’s third-leading tackler with 61 and has also tallied two interceptions, three pass breakups and three forced fumbles. He was named first team All-American Athletic Conference as a safety and selected as Special Teams Player of the Year and a first team All-American by the College Football Network for his work on kickoff and punt return.
“We always say he’s the ‘eraser,’” Navy safeties coach Eric Lewis said. “When there are mistakes, long runs or long passes, he has an ability to run it down and give us a place to stand.”
Lane’s playing career followed a similar path as his military one. His spot was uncertain – and then it wasn’t.
No active college safety has seen more time than Lane. The 5-foot-11, 197-pound Jessup native played all 47 games of his career so far, earning a permanent starting role six games into his freshman year. His recorded 37 tackles as a freshman and his defensive unit held rival Army scoreless for a half. It remains the last time the Midshipmen beat the Black Knights.
But Lane knew his play was messy. He “just ran around,” chasing the ball like a golden retriever.
As a sophomore, Lane fixed his flaws, embraced his coaches and more than doubled his tackles (77). By his junior season, Lane improved in reading the opposing offense. His tackling receded a bit, but he emerged as a ballhawk. He tied for the team lead in interceptions and pass breakups with four and eight, respectively.
“As you get experienced, you realize there’s a lot of funky motions, a lot of trickery. I gotta keep my eyes on my key, react off of it and go 100 miles an hour,” Lane said. “But it’s about communication, too, making sure everyone can hear my calls, checks, be on the same page so we can go out and attack.”
Even now, heading into his final collegiate games, he’s still growing. Lewis talks with him constantly about “getting 1% better.” As a result, Lane tries not to linger in past performances, but Lewis knows which ones stand above the rest.
On Sept. 21, Navy only led then-No. 23 Memphis by five with less than a minute to go. The Tigers marched to the Mids’ 26-yard line and quarterback Seth Hennigan threw a pass over the middle seeking a go-ahead touchdown. Lane read the quarterback’s eyes, stepped in front of the intended target and picked the ball, returning it 86 yards for a touchdown.
On Nov. 29 facing East Carolina, Navy needed to shake off a losing streak. Lewis said Lane “put on a tackling display” with nine, including two that saved 14 points early on, as the Mids won.
“Making plays on the opportunities present and being more vocal, being a leader, that’s a big thing for me,” Lewis said. “And he’s done a great job all season.”
To Lane, being a leader isn’t just intercepting balls and making sure the plebes on the sideline saw it. It’s guiding the young defensive backs during film sessions. It’s pulling them aside when he can spot the shadow of doubt that’s all too familiar.
“There’s trials and tribulations. There’s a lot of pitfalls. But knowing where I went wrong, I grab those young guys and be like: ‘Hey, this isn’t the best course of action,’” Lane said. “We all wanted to leave at one point. But I tell them there’s more than you can see right now.”
Conversation sparked when another Lane chose differently.
Dejuan Lane stood at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds and was a four-star recruit. He earned spots on three Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association All-Conference teams and the No. 6 ranking in Maryland by ESPN. He fielded offers from multiple Power Five schools before landing on Penn State in June 2023.
Few Midshipmen enter the transfer portal, but it does happen. Some wondered whether Rayuan would try to join his little brother.
“Four years ago, knowing nothing about the academy, going wherever [Dejuan] did would’ve been an easy decision,” Lane said. “But there’s different strokes for different folks. I appreciate everything the Naval Academy has for me, and I definitely wouldn’t switch that for anything.”
For all his development, one thing remained unchanged since the very beginning. Lane yearned for change, for growth, for glory. He found his fellow freshmen – now seniors – did, too.
“The whole kickoff team in the [2021] Army-Navy Game were freshmen and we were hungry. We wanted to be the guys to make change in the program,” Lane said. “Now, with our record and everything, we’ve done a good job trying to turn the program around.”
Navy went 13-23 during Lane’s first three years, including losses to Army in each of the last two. After starting this season 5-0, the Mids earned their first Associated Press ranking since 2019. Mixed results the rest of the year kept Navy from the American Athletic Conference championship game — a game No. 22 Army won.
Lane will play his final game against Army on Saturday, then he and the Mids will face Oklahoma and the Lockheed Martin Armed Forced Bowl on Dec. 27 — its first bowl game also since 2019. The turnaround has happened. But closing with wins would make it complete.
“We see it coming,” Lane said. “This senior class, we’ve always seen this coming.”
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