How 'Soul Searching' Brought Lamont Wade Back to Penn State in 2019

'I feel like making that hard decision is going to pay off,' Penn State safety Lamont Wade said of his 2019 return.

Tim Banks, Penn State's safeties coach, said his time with senior Lamont Wade has produced "a pretty good marriage so far." That could have changed last year.

Wade entered the NCAA transfer portal after the 2018 season, testing the market following his sophomore season at Penn State. He ultimately decided to return, became a starter and was named All-Big Ten honorable mention.

A year removed from that decision, Wade recently discussed how he approached such an important move. He pointed to some "soul-searching" and a personal dive into what he considered important.

"I kind of did some soul-searching, dug deep," Wade said. "Whenever problems occurred, the first thing I did, the first thing a lot of people do, is point fingers. And that's not the end-all, be-all.

"The first thing you have to do is look into yourself, and that's what I had to do. I had to take a step back and look into myself and realize, 'What do I really want out of this? What can I get out of it, and how can I get it? When I took a step back, I realized that staying was honestly the best decision for me."

After rededicating himself last summer, Wade said he has been further focused this year. He became a pescatarian during the offseason, which Wade said helped him trim his body-fat ratio from 12 to 4 percent. He has taken a larger role as a defensive leader and also lobbied special teams coordinator Joe Lorig to return kicks this season.

"Lamont is super-smart, he's very motivated and he definitely wants to be the best version of himself he can be," Banks said. "Guys like that, I click with in general."

Wade was among Penn State's prized recruits in the 2017 class, a five-star prospect who entered with intentions of playing on both sides of the ball. Last year, after Wade decided to stay, Franklin said that the safety benefited from the process.

"The amount of pressure that he came into this program with, in terms of how he was recruited and rankings and all those types of things and expectations, I think all that adversity and all of those experiences really helped him grow," Franklin said. "At the time you don't probably want to go through it. But I think looking back at us, all of us, we know we are who we are and where we're at in life because of all those experiences."

For Wade, that "soul-searching" made a difference.

"I feel like making that hard decision is going to pay off, because I haven’t even scratched the surface of what I can do," he said. "It's a lot of upside, a lot of upside."

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