Conventional wisdom will have you believe that players from small colleges can't make it at the professional level because they didn't play against a level of competition that adequately prepared them for the pros -- as did the football players at top-rated programs like Florida State, Michigan, and Nebraska.

Based on that premise, the fact that Fred Lane is playing pro ball at all might be considered a miracle, much less being considered an up-and-coming running back for the Carolina Panthers.

The twenty-two-year-old rookie played at Lane College in Tennessee, which is hardly considered a heavyweight in the college football universe. Yet with the NFL's regular season winding down, Lane -- the first player from his school to make an NFL team -- has established himself as a legitimate performer.

"He's gonna be real good,"' says Ed Hardin, a North Carolina-based sportswriter who covers the NFL. "Yeah, he still has things to learn, but he's young and he'll get bigger.

"He's a good fit for what the Panthers like to do offensively," adds Hardin. "He runs well and gets the job done. I think he's gonna be around for awhile."

Richard Lawson, who was Lane College's offensive coordinator during Lane's senior year, isn't a bit surprised that the rookie is making people around the NFL sit up and take notice.

"The biggest concern I had about Fred was whether or not he would get a legitimate chance to show what he could do," explains Lawson. "A lot of times players from small schools don't get that chance because coaches and scouts look at the level of competition they played against in college and say they don't have the talent to make it at that level.

"But the main thing about Fred is that he has the talent, and most of all, he has the desire," he adds. "Coming from a small school, he's humble enough and hungry enough to be as good as he wants. He can get to a Barry Sanders level. It's all up to him. He's strong enough and fast enough. All he ever needed was an opportunity."

Seizing the Moment

In early November, Lane caught the nation's eye unexpectedly with a breathtaking, breakthrough game as Carolina dusted the Oakland Raiders 38-14. He ran for 147 yards and three touchdowns, in the process, he set a Panthers single-game record for yards gained and touchdowns scored. As a reward for that performance, Lane was named the NFL's Player of the Week.

But what was especially noteworthy about that game is that Lane, who signed with the Panthers as a free agent, wasn't in the starting lineup. Up until that time, he was the team's third-string running back. However, starting tailback Tshimanga Biakabutuka left the game in the first quarter after suffering a rib injury. And the week leading up to the Oakland game, Anthony Johnson, Biakabutuka's backup, had been switched to playing primarily on third downs.

Lane seized the moment for all it was worth. He either outran defenders or ran over them. And when he scored, he put together some pre-arranged end zone choreography which featured an assortment of touchdown dances. It wasn't long before Lane had single-handedly put everybody in Ericsson Stadium in a dancing mood. By game's end, the previously unknown rookie was no longer a secret.

"I wasn't surprised." says Lane about his performance against the Raiders. "It's not like I've never done that before. Things that day just started going on a roll and I just kept going with it. That game took me back to my days at Lane.

"As for the dancing," he continues, "that's something I did more of in high school than college. But against Oakland, I just had that feeling. I felt like a kid in a candy store.

The way Lane sees it, the game is very basic. There are no secrets to keep or magic formulas to discover. You go out, play hard, and everything else falls into place.

"If you can play, you can play," Lane says. "Football is football. For me, that means doing what comes naturally -- hitting the holes, making the right decisions and breaking tackles.

Getting the Credentials

Lane has always had the goods to excel as a running back. At Franklin (Tenn.) High School, he was an All-State player. District Player of the Year, and Class AAA Player of the Year. He ran for 1,000 or more yards for three seasons in a row.

With those credentials, the college scouts were very aware of his skills. But they stayed away when he didn't meet the NCAA academic requirements for incoming freshmen athletes. So he opted to go to Lane College, a Division II school, which is named after Bishop Isaac Lane (no relation).

At college, he sat out his first year so he could improve his grades. He kept pace academically, majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies and acquiring a 2.5 grade-point average. And even though he didn't play as a freshman, Lane kept working to prepare himself for the day he would be academically eligible to play for the Dragons.

"Fred has always had a tremendous work ethic," says J.L. Perry, Lane College's athletics director. "That year he was redshirted as a freshman, he was always in the weight room or doing some running. He has always worked out constantly . . . in-season and out-of-season. There's a guy who really worked at it, someone who set a goal and achieved it."

Once Lane put on the uniform for the Dragons, it was full speed ahead -- literally. By the end of his senior year. Lane had earned a sterling reputation as one of the nation's elite. For his college career he had 4,433 yards and 41 touchdowns.

Lane's senior year wasn't as productive as he would have liked. After two seasons of rushing for nearly 3,600 yards, he had just 821 yards and eight touchdowns in eight games. The decline in his yardage and scoring could be partially attributed to the fact that opponents were stacking their defenses specifically to stop him. But the critical factor was a season-long injury that turned out to be worse than originally thought.

During pre-season practice, Lane suffered what was later diagnosed as a torn lateral meniscus in his knee. He played despite the injury and had corrective surgery at the end of the season.

Because of the fallout from an injury, Lane was not drafted. But he eventually got a tryout with the Panthers as a free agent. In preseason drills, he got the chance to strut his stuff when he had several long runs during scrimmages. But as a free agent, he was never sure he would still be on the team until the final cuts were made prior to the start of the season.

"I never got comfortable about where I stood, because you just never know what's going to happen," Lane says. "So I just kept on working and doing my best. I really didn't feel comfortable until after the last cuts were made.

The game of football has a family link for Lane, whose dad. "Big Fred." was a star running back at Tennessee State in the 1970s. The senior Lane has been a high school and middle school coach in Tennessee for twenty-five years.

Lane credits his father with helping him keep things in perspective.

"He's always giving me lots of advice about what I'm doing," Fred Jr. says, "And he makes a habit of always keeping things positive. But the key thing is that he always tells me he loves me and that he's proud of me.

Coming from an obscure background hasn't slowed Lane down at all. Fact is, he feels that his background gives him plenty of motivation to make the most of his abilities.

"It's all a matter of continuing to work hard," he explains. "And I give thanks to the Man Above, the one who gave me these skills, he says "When you combine hard work and giving thanks, you're ready whenever your chance comes around," he adds. "And when it does, you take full advantage of that opportunity."

© Copyright 1997 by DiverseEducation.com
© Copyright 2007 by DiverseEducation.com

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