Garcia Lane played from 1980-1983 as a defensive back and was a co-captain for the Buckeyes in his senior year. He is third all-time at OSU with punt returned yards with 895.

“It was a dream of mine,” Shaun Lane said. “My dad played here back in the ’80s and I was aware of that. Ohio State was the first team to offer me, too.”

Shaun, from Hubbard, Ohio, has no regrets in coming to OSU.

“I’m just blessed to come here and meet a lot of people that made a difference in my life,” Shaun said. “It taught me to be a man and I learned a lot here and it’s definitely helped me in my life.”

In Lane’s sophomore year, he played at tailback after he tore his ACL during his freshman year. Lane was a running in high school, running for more than 3,700 yards, but knew he could not play as tailback at OSU.

“I knew coming to Ohio State that I was going to play corner because of my size,” Shaun said. “It was a fun little thing here, but obviously I respect the big time guys. I was just helping the team do all that I can do.”

Lane has had 36 tackles in his career including a punt block, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.

“Shaun is a great special teams guy,” fullback Brandon Smith said. “He doesn’t play a whole lot on defense, but he made tons and tons of plays on special teams.”

One of Shaun’s fumble recoveries was earlier this year when the Buckeyes played against Ohio University. Lane recovered a fumble punt with less than one minute to go in the third quarter. The Buckeyes offense scored the winning touchdown off that turnover.

“I was so happy for him because sometimes you see people when things don’t go the way they want, they’re not playing as much as they want and when you see a guy who works hard is really deserving something like that … I just happen to get real excited for him,” defensive lineman Bryan Gray said. “Everybody ran up to him on the sideline and said great job. I was really happy for him.”

Shaun likes to keep playing no matter where he is, but said he could help out volunteering as a coach.

“I’m going to use these legs as long as I can whether it’s American or Canada,” he said. “I like helping the youth, so I can see me volunteering.”

Will Toman can be reached at [email protected].