You can rave about Landon Lane’s right arm, the one that led to a completion percentage of 63.8 and amassed 1,636 yards and 23 touchdowns through the air during the 2024 season.
One can talk about Landon Lane’s legs that always kept churning, carrying him away from oncoming blitzers and grinded out 1,385 rushing yards and 28 TDs over the course of 14 games back in the fall.
Feel free to discuss that masterful mind that could expertly dissect opposing defenses and lead to split-second decisions that were usually always correct.
Don’t forget the intestinal fortitude – a.k.a. guts – he showed time and time again when lowering his shoulder to collide with a load of a linebacker or dangerous defensive back.
Yet, there was something else that made Rye Cove High School senior quarterback Landon Lane stand out among the rest – whether under the Friday night lights or Saturday afternoon sun – and that was the shoulder-length mane of blonde hair.
He was among the elite football players in Southwest Virginia this season and unquestionably had the foremost follicles as well.
“At this point some people know me by my hair,” Lane said. “So, if I get rid of it, some people may not recognize me anymore.”
It’s no surprise that Lane is being recognized as the Bristol Herald Courier’s 2024 offensive player of the year after accounting for those 51 touchdowns and having a penchant for making big plays.
Long hair, rare air.
Lane was the trigger man for a high-powered offense that put up impressive numbers as the Eagles won a single-season school-record 13 games, claimed the Region 1D championship and advanced to the VHSL Class 1 state semifinals.
Long hair, play with flair.
“When the game is on the line you want the ball in your best player’s hands,” said Rye Cove coach Gary Collier. “That’s where we went with it.”
Rye Cove’s game-winning touchdown in the Region 1D championship against Eastside Friday night.
ALLEN GREGORY
It was a play that will be talked about in Southwest Virginia football circles for years to come.
With Rye Cove trailing Cumberland District archrival Eastside by two points in the Region 1D finals on a frigid Friday night in November and the clock ticking down, Landon Lane sidestepped some potential tacklers and threw a pinpoint touchdown pass to Luke Jessee with 25 seconds remaining.
That clinched a 26-20 win for the Cove and the second regional championship in program history. Video of the play went viral on the western end of the state.
“Everyone stayed calm during that moment, and we all executed what we went over a million times in practice,” Lane said. “Luke did exactly what he has been taught to do when I scramble, trying to find an open spot. This time being the end zone.”
It’s not hyperbole to say that Lane had been waiting for such a moment his entire life. He started playing football when he was just 4 years old and even though he was considered a better baseball slugger in his early days of Little League, football was his first love and his passion for the pigskin never waned.
“I would play on older teams in Little League,” Lane said. “As much as I might not have liked that then, I realized that it molded me to the player that I have become. I couldn’t have done it without my dad [Steve]. He always pushed me hard when I was young.”
A middle child – he has an older brother, Lucas, and a younger sister, Lily – Lane was put in the middle of a tough situation in 2021 when he became Rye Cove’s starting quarterback as a freshman.
Rye Cove quarterback Landon Lane carries the ball as Grundy’s Luke Shelton trips him up in a Region 1D playoff game.
The Eagles went 0-6 and saw their season end prematurely when the roster dwindled to an unsafe number of able-bodied participants. The Cove trailed Lee High 32-0 at halftime of a game and were unable to finish.
“It was rough trying to get through the season with very few guys as an injury bug started, but I remember sitting in there in the locker room during halftime and they told us that we were not going back out on the field,” Lane said. “That itself kills you as competitor. I hate losing more than anything, especially when we couldn’t go back out to finish. That year might have been rough but those guys I played with were the ones who wanted to play, and we gave it our all.”
Gary Collier arrived on the scene as head coach in the spring of 2022 and with a collection of capable assistant coaches and iron-willed players helped change the fortunes of the Eagles. The Cove is 31-6 in his tenure.
Lane remembers his first interaction with the new guy calling the shots.
“It was short and sweet,” Lane said. “He said, ‘You ready to win some games?’ and I said, ‘Yes, sir’ and we got to work. It didn’t take no time to get on the same page because we both wanted the same thing, and it was to win football games.”
Collier was a former star signal-caller at Pennington High School and Emory & Henry University and Lane learned some of the finer points of the QB position from his coach.
“He still throws the ball better than me,” Lane admitted.
Landon Lane would make sure to drink two bottles of Pedialyte on gamedays and on nights when Rye Cove played at home would take a nap at some point between the time school ended and the game started.
When the ball was kicked off, it was go time for Lane.
One thing was always noticeable.
“How confident he was every game,” said Rye Cove senior Hamilton Osborne. “If we needed someone to make a play, he was the one who wanted the ball.”
That wasn’t all.
“The way he was able to make decisions in the heat of the moment,” Osborne said.
Lane is listed at a generous 5-foot-10 and 185-pounds but played much bigger than that. “He ain’t afraid to hit ya,” is the ultimate compliment football players can be paid in these parts and that was true with Lane.
He also played on the defensive side and made 61 tackles.
“He has been the toughest player I’ve played with or ever seen on the field,” Osborne said.
Lane took the best shot from foes and would just head back to the huddle, no worse for wear.
Rye Cove quarterback Landon Lane carries the ball amid a convoy of blockers.
Emily Ball, Bristol Herald Courier
“I am sure on Saturday and Sunday mornings, he was pretty beat up and sore,” Collier said. “Hard-nosed.”
Collier noted Lane’s improvement as a passer throughout his career, his leadership ability and his football IQ over the course of his time at Rye Cove.
“Landon can read the field better than anyone else,” teammate Blake Goins said.
Playing behind a physical offensive line and with capable offensive weapons around him, Lane knew how to make it all work.
Coaches in the Cumberland District are relieved that the kid has taken his last snap for the Eagles.
“He got us on the QB counter,” said J.I. Burton coach Jacob Caudill. “He was faster than he looked on film. … He got better every time we saw him. Just his command and the way he carried himself and led his team was phenomenal.”
When Collier took over as coach he contemplated implementing an edict in which players would be clean-shaven and have short haircuts, a rule made famous by former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
“I got in there to meet the team and about everybody had long hair and facial hair,” Collier said. “I decided that we had other battles we had to fight.”
So, Lane was able to keep his lucky locks.
He lives in the community of Fairview, but it could be called Hairview in this case for Scott County’s own Sampson.
“Ever since we were in elementary school,” said teammate Will Rollins. “That’s how you knew him – the kid with long hair.”
Long hair and a love for football have always been present for Rye Cove’s Landon Lane, shown here during his younger days.
Don’t break out the scissors or electric razor around this guy.
“We always tried to make deals with him about shaving it all off,” Osborne said.
Not happening.
“I always tell him to buzz his hair, but he won’t do it,” Goins said. “I think he’s scared of being bald.”
Rye Cove’s season ended with a 40-34 loss to the Grayson County Blue Devils in the VHSL Class 1 state semifinals. Grayson County rallied from a 15-point deficit and scored the game-winning touchdown with 27 seconds remaining.
Lane’s last pass was a completion that put the ball on Grayson County’s 13-yard line, but time expired on the play.
“It was a hard, physical, tough game that didn’t go our way,” Lane said. “It was very tough knowing that we were so close and it’s still a tough loss to swallow.”
Lane will not play football at the next level and hopes to enter the cybersecurity field. A good career field for a guy who is known as being calm, cool and collected.
“He always played calm even in big situations,” said Rye Cove offensive lineman Ethan Lawson. “He also seemed to find a way to win.”
He also partakes in basketball, baseball, golf and track and field for the Eagles.
It will be kind of odd next year to look out on the field and not see the long-haired Lane in his No. 3 jersey leading Rye Cove on a path to victory.
He certainly had a fruitful four seasons with the Eagles.
“A blessing,” Lane said. “We had some chances to do some things that have never been done at Rye Cove and it was truly an honor to play with each and every one of those guys in that fieldhouse.”
Bristol Herald Courier’s All-Area Football Team
Offense
QB – Landon Lane, Rye Cove
RB– Owen Barr, Abingdon
RB – Trent Dowdell, Tennessee High
WR – Avery Musick, Honaker
WR – Toby Baker, Lebanon
OL – Tyler Barrett, Patrick Henry
OL – Reagan Wood, Eastside
OL – A.J. Johnson, Union
OL – Landon Fuller, Abingdon
OL – Xay Kennard, Graham
TE – Trent Tatum, West Ridge
K – Dylan Nash, Graham
Kick Returner – Trey Rainey, George Wythe
Athlete – Keshawn Smith, Virginia High