There aren’t many bright sports to Penn State losing one of its best players.
Coach James Franklin confirmed PSU fans’ fears Wednesday when he announced that of the best safeties in the country, KJ Winston, would be out with a “long-term” injury.
Whether “long-term” means a merely a month or the rest of the season is unknown but the bottom line is that Winston will be out a while.
Losing a team captain and projected first-round draft pick is never a good thing, let alone in a position group that doesn’t have much depth to speak of.
But as Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin likes to say, one man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity, and Dejuan Lane is the one with the opportunity.
The true freshman has been talked up for more than a month, being one of two newcomers to be given the green light to burn his redshirt.
When Franklin announced that Lane had been given the green light, he did so not planning on being without Winston.
Now, Lane has a bigger role.
It’s not yet defined what Lane’s role will be.
Ideally, Penn State would run a 4-2-5 with three safeties, which had been Winston, Jaylen Reed and Zakee Wheatley. There’s a chance that the loss of Winston leads to Penn State going to a more traditional 4-3.
Whatever the case is, Penn State needs Lane to step up, which is reminiscent of another true freshman safety that had to step up.
Marcus Allen was his name.
Like Lane in 2024, Allen was a true freshman in 2014. Like Lane, Allen had the green light right away, playing Week 1. Allen ended up making his first start in the team’s sixth game against Ohio State. He started the rest of the season and never looked back, becoming a fixture on Penn State’s 2016 Big Ten title team and making arguably the most famous regular-season play in school history.
This is not to say that Lane is going to become the next Marcus Allen or the next Ronnie Lott but everybody has to start somewhere. For Lane, that somewhere is right now.
“Quite frankly, we need him,” Penn State safeties coach Anthony Poindexter said days before Winston’s injury month. “We don’t have a ton depth — proven depth, anyway, right now in that room. But he’s mature enough to know what he’s doing. Obviously, he got a long way to go, but if he just keeps watching those older guys, they’ll help speed up his process. He’s got the physical toolset to be a really good player here.”
Those words ended up being more of a prophecy than Poindexter would have wanted but the man Lane is filling in for feels he’s up to the challenge.
“When he stepped on campus,” Winston told reporters via Zoom days before the season opener, “he was probably the tallest in the room from height. He’s a big guy. And then when it comes to speed, he’s up there. He’s very fast. He’s very explosive. He’s very mature, and I think that’s another thing that stood out to me. Just in practice, he’s very coachable.”
“I respect him a lot for that. He’s very coachable,” Winston said. “When he doesn’t do something right, he’s willing to learn and hear from teammates and coaches and he goes out there and fixes it. That’s the big thing. But overall, just him as a player and him as a person, he’s the same guy every day and willing to learn every day, and that’s what I think allowed him to keep elevating throughout camp and be ready to go.”
Lane might or might not be “ready to go” right away. But if he is, this could be the start of a big-time Penn State career.
Once upon a time, a true freshman safety named Marcus Allen had to make his first start at home during the White Out against Ohio State & the dude balled out.
Dejuan gets the benefit of a 3:30 kick against Kent State. Go be great, young man. https://t.co/vmUC5PiC8Y
— Chris Buchignani (@buchignani) September 19, 2024
