Following a strong sophomore season in 2022 that was somewhat obscured by the Navy football team's 4-8 record, free safety Rayuan Lane III had some serious decisions to contemplate.
 
Lane's burgeoning talent – high-level speed, athleticism and versatility, excellent football instincts and IQ – had been evident at Navy, where the product of the Gilman School in Baltimore had started for the Midshipmen since midway through his plebe season in 2021. Rarely do freshmen start at Navy. It is even unusual for a plebe to earn a varsity football letter.
 
While Lane expected to sign the 2-for-7 papers that would compel him to graduate from the Naval Academy then serve in either the Navy or Marine Corps for at least five years, he also wished to gauge the college football world's interest in him.
 
Lane entered the NCAA football transfer portal in the spring of 2023, a move that produced quite a reaction. He received a handful of scholarship/NIL offers from Power Five schools that included UCLA, Notre Dame and Ole Miss.
 
Now a senior listed at 5-feet-11, 197 pounds and drawing the interest of NFL scouts as arguably the best player on the Navy roster, Lane says he never seriously considered leaving Annapolis.
 
In the end, while he was pleased by the Power Five attention during visits to Notre Dame and UCLA, Lane could not envision himself finishing his college football days anywhere but with his Navy teammates, his football brothers for life. He could not give up on his mission at Navy and the life that would unfold following his graduation in May 2025.
 
Lane is on schedule to earn a degree in quantitative economics and has requested for a service assignment with the Marine Corps.
 
His mother, Felecia Lane, says her son made his decision based in part on a logical question.
 
"Rayuan just wanted to explore, see what was out there. I think [the portal] was mostly a curiosity to him," she says. "At one point he asked me, 'If they're asking me to leave a great place to go to another great place, what am I gaining?'"
 
"Ultimately, I've got a lot of love for the academy and for my teammates," Lane says. "When I put everything together, it did not make sense for me to get away from this place."
 
"I think about the opportunities I have had to grow here. I feel like everything I want and need [as a student-athlete] can be accomplished here," adds Lane, who is a squad leader in charge of seven Midshipmen in the Brigade's 8^th Company. "The overarching responsibilities here – academics, military, football – have helped us to grow up quickly. There are so many [career] connections through the academy, especially the football brotherhood. I am very thankful for this place."
 
Few things would please Lane more this fall than being part of a senior class that led Navy to its first winning season since 2019, the same year in which the Mids last won the coveted Commander-In-Chief's trophy over service academy rivals Army and Air Force.
 
The Mids, with another solid defense as their foundation, are off to their first 2-0 start since 2019.
 
Lane, who has played in all 38 games with Navy, is poised to make his 33^rd consecutive start at free safety against visiting American Athletic Conference rival Memphis on Saturday.
 
"We don't get guys as talented as Ray here often. I don't think Ray is close to his ceiling yet," says Brian Newberry, Navy's second-year coach who also spent four seasons as the Mids' defensive coordinator. "His football IQ has continued to grow. I don't think there is any question he could play at the next level. Based on my conversations with some [NFL] scouts, they don't question it either."
 
Lane, who has recorded seven tackles and a pass breakup in a pair of Navy routs over Bucknell and Temple, is focused on doing whatever he can to help Navy's program begin its rise to prominence again. After four straight losing seasons, after the tough challenges the Covid pandemic presented, Lane feels the Navy defense, which has been the Mids' backbone in recent years, can set a tone for a real turnaround.
 
"Our defense loves to be out there competing, bringing the heat and the hits. We are very confident we can go out there and get stops against anyone," Lane says. "My job is to be an eraser in the back end. Stop runs that get past the first or second levels [of the defense]. When the ball is in the air, it's a 'my ball' mentality."
 
Lane has spent his first three productive years in Annapolis showing his versatility and his developing knowledge of the game. His durability also stands out. Newberry calls Lane "a machine," since he has never been held out of a practice or been forced to exit a game, due to an injury.
 
Over the course of a typical game, you might see Lane stepping into the tackle box to defend against an anticipated run. Or moving into the slot to provide man-to-man coverage against an extra receiver. Or blitzing to put more pressure on an opposing quarterback. Or playing center field, hunting for a "my ball" moment.
 
Over his first three seasons, Lane produced a combined 174 tackles, broke up 16 passes, forced five fumbles, recovered three fumbles, and picked off five passes. He had four interceptions in last year's 5-7 season. He returned one of them 97 yards for a touchdown in a 31-6 victory over UAB.
 
Then there is Lane's valuable presence on special teams. During his plebe season in 2021, while he was breaking in as an extra defensive back in Navy's dime packages on passing downs, Lane nailed down a spot as a gunner on the punt team and as a safety with the kickoff unit.
 
A gunner lines up near the sideline and attempts to get past one or more blockers while sprinting downfield to stop the punt returner. Lane typically shows his impressive bursts of speed in that role.
 
Last year, under special teams coordinator Ricky Brown, Navy's punt return defense ranked 23^rd in the country, after surrendering an average of 4.59 yards per return. On kickoff return defense, the Mids were 25^th-best in the nation, having allowed 16.92 yards per return.
 
Newberry says Lane's special teams prowess has been essential to giving Navy's defense good field position.
 
"[Lane] is almost impossible to block as a gunner, and he has saved us from giving up a touchdown more than a few times as our safety guy [on kickoffs]," Newberry says.
 
Six games into his freshman season, with then-senior safeties Mitch West and Kevin Brennan out with season-ending injuries, Lane joined the starting lineup, where he has remained since.
 
"Every defensive call goes through [Lane]. He is the leader of the defense, and his presence means a lot on special teams. He is one of the best I've seen at the gunner position," says senior cornerback Dashaun Peele.
 
"Where [Lane] excels as a person as well as a football player is the way he doesn't overthink in the heat of the moment. He does not let pressure get under his skin," says senior safety Mbiti Williams. "As a leader, he communicates very well. You expect him to make plays, because he is often a step ahead of [an opposing] quarterback or receiver. He does not let the great things he does go to his head. He knows you are never bigger than the game."
 
Navy defensive coordinator P.J. Volker admires how Lane, who relays defensive signals from Volker to his defense, makes coverage checks so quickly and with such great anticipation.
 
"[Lane] already has made so many plays, based on his detailed film study. You see the instincts, the speed and athleticism, but the thing that lets him play faster is his knowledge. He is extremely intelligent," Volker says. "He has been a pure definition of what a safety is. Lane is our backstop."
 
And to think that by his sophomore year at Gilman, Lane had decided not to play football, while concentrating mostly on his basketball game as a combo guard. Lane had played football since elementary school, but the Gilman program was struggling mightily. Lane's experience as a freshman junior varsity quarterback did not satisfy him.
 
Former Gilman varsity head football coach Nick Bach recalls being impressed by Lane's game on the hardwood.
 
"I'd heard about Rayuan and I watched him play basketball. He was a very aggressive defender, very agile and strong," recalls Bach, now head football coach at Pace Academy. "I thought he could be a phenomenal safety and be really good with the ball in his hands as a running back and kickoff and punt returner."
 
Lane decided to give football another try as a junior in the fall of 2019. He earned All-MIAA honors as a dynamic playmaker on both sides of the ball. As a senior in 2020, Lane scored seven touchdowns in only two games of a Covid-shortened season – as a running back, receiver and returner.
 
There would be no showcase camps for Lane to attend and possibly attract college football recruiters in the summer of 2020, due to the pandemic. But his first offer would come from Navy. Army also offered Lane, who was all-in with the Midshipmen.
 
"In his junior year, that's when Rayuan really got in tune with football, in terms of watching lots of film and learning the game more," says William Lane, Rayuan's father. "He was really looking forward to his senior year. We planned to take him to a bunch of [college recruitment] camps. He didn't show a lot of frustration, but I know it was hard on him."
 
Lane's younger brother, DeJuan, a 6-feet-2, 211-pound safety and a product of Gilman, is a freshman at Penn State. Like his older brother, DeJuan Lane also turned down an offer from Notre Dame.
 
Felecia Lane says her older son's unusual path is consistent with the type of person he has been since his earliest years. She says Rayuan exited the womb so fast that he was born with two black eyes. He started walking before his first birthday, started riding a two-wheel bike – no training wheels – before his third birthday. He was never one to sit around the house playing video games or watching TV. He was happier in the outdoors, playing in the mud, racing dirt bikes, popping wheelies.
 
"[Rayuan] was not the typical guy. He was my rough and tough child, like the second Dad of the house," she says. "He's not the social butterfly his brother is. He's always been reserved, yet outgoing, a natural leader, always walking to the beat of his own drum. The Marines. That suits him."
 
"Guys like Rayuan have one eye on the present and one on the future. The thought of losing him gives us coaches a lot of anxiety," Volker says. "Ray is a very smart young man and he loves it here. He left substantial amounts of money on the table to stay at Navy. We are extremely grateful as a football program that he is still here. He has made quite an impact on a lot of people."
 
"We want to keep things moving on an upward trend. It's been hard," says Lane, alluding to the losing seasons that he adds he and his classmates don't dwell on.
 
"We [seniors] are keeping the heat and the morale up," he adds. "Obviously, we want to win the CIC [trophy] and get to a bowl game. All we can do is attack the next day harder and keep going. At some point, we will break through."