Return Man
Jahan Dotson is staying at Penn State to handle unfinished business beyond football field
A“I didn’t want to leave Penn State knowing that we got off to that bad start … that it was going to basically kind of define my Penn State career that last year that I was here.”
— Jahan Dotson
s the losses kept piling up for the Penn State football team, Jahan Dotson’s resolve only grew stronger. So even after the Nittany Lions responded to a shocking 0-5 start by closing their 2020 season with four straight wins, it was only natural for the junior wide receiver and Nazareth High graduate to remain unfulfilled.
“We’ve got a bunch of fighters on this team,” Dotson said in an interview with The Morning Call this week. “We didn’t start off so well and we were able to bounce back during the season. …
“Honestly, we’ve got guys who want to be great. A lot of guys are coming back next year because they feel like they have some unfinished business. They feel like there’s something that they need to accomplish this year.
“I feel like we’ve got a lot of guys who were fighters, and myself included, who feel like this [next season] can be one for the books.”
Dotson is so determined to be a part of what’s to come at State College that
he’s passing up the potential for millions of NFL dollars this year. He’ll be back at Penn State for his senior season despite playing for his third offensive coordinator in as many years, Mike Yurcich.
“They have a really good one, though,” countered Tom Falzone, Dotson’s coach at Nazareth. “He’s got a lot of ties to the area and he’s had a lot of success. I remember he used to recruit the area when he was at Shippensburg [as the offensive coordinator]. And … he got a chance to go to Oklahoma State and had a great run there, and [he] was at Ohio State too.
“So he’s a good one, and he likes to chuck the ball around, which is going to be great for Jahan. This could work out well for him, I hope.”
The pros will just have to wait for the player who spent all of 2020 proving just how ready he is to jump to the next level, producing team highs in catches (52), yards (884) and touchdown receptions (eight) to go with eight punt returns for a 24.6 average, including a TD.
“I didn’t want to leave Penn State knowing that we got off to that bad start … that it was going to basically kind of define my Penn State career that last year that I was here,” Dotson said. “So I kind of wanted to come back, get back to Penn State ways, which is winning — winning football, traditional football and win a bunch of games my senior year and go out right with my family.”
But what happened on the field didn’t totally drive the choice.
“The decision to come back was definitely a tough one,” Dotson said, “but I had to realize that it wasn’t so much about football. Getting my degree is huge for me.”
Dotson’s support system exists at the university and back home in the Lehigh Valley, where his mother, Robin, and father, Al, are there for him.
“I talk to my family, literally, every night,” he said, “just talking about what I want to do, pros and cons, goals, all those types of things. I talk to my coaches and some of my closest friends.”
But perhaps not until he spoke to former teammate and Denver Broncos wide receiver K.J. Hamler did everything crystallize in Dotson’s mind.
“He always expressed to me how you don’t get this time back at Penn State or with your brothers,” Dotson said. “He wishes he could come back all the time just because he’s in the real world now, like it’s a job. … You’re living off a salary, all those types of things.
“You don’t get that time to cherish the locker room and stuff like that with those guys that you’ve been with for four or five years. So that was big for me.”
That said, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Dotson should be a great pro, according to Falzone.
“I think they’re going get him in the slot and let him do his thing out there,” Falzone said. “Penn State’s got a good run of receivers making it to the NFL, a lot of guys that have made it recently. And I know he’s going to be there too.
“He’s going to continue to grow in the weight room and keep working on his body, [making it] bigger and stronger and faster. But he certainly has the tools.
“Could he have gone this year? I think a lot of people think he could have. But … his time will come. And I think we’re all going to see him play on Sundays.”
Sometimes players who have the kind of breakout junior season Dotson put together hurt their NFL career chances by coming back for one last run. Staffs change, systems change, bones break and all of a sudden a player’s draft stock drops.
“They still have [head coach James] Franklin, though,” said Al Dotson, Jahan’s confident father. “Nothing changes there.”
The family hasn’t discussed taking out an insurance policy to cover the loss of income from a catastrophic injury that could prevent or delay Jahan’s entry into the NFL. That could happen before he puts pads on again.
But the best insurance is a degree for the 20-year-old telecommunications major.
“For Jahan, it makes sense for another year,” Al Dotson said. “We didn’t just sign up for football at Penn State. This is one of the best schools in the nation. Football is football, but Penn State is Penn State. It’s about getting a degree, it really is.”
Jahan is just thankful to be playing at any level after he and his teammates dealt for a short time with the plug being pulled on their 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic — before seeing it salvaged by the Big Ten, which changed its mind at the last minute and decided to conduct an abbreviated season.
“I was at home for a couple days,” he said, “and I’m like, this just feels weird, like I’m supposed to be in fall camp right now, practicing with my guys. So it was definitely a weird feeling. And I was just ecstatic when they called the season back on.”
Dotson will approach 2021 at full speed, which as everyone knows by now is fast enough to leave most opponents in his dust.
After beginning the season projected by most NFL draft experts as a Day 3 pick (Rounds 4-7), Dotson may already be considered for Rounds 2 and 3. Another season of excellence could move him up more.
For now, the only payment Dotson seeks is redemption.
“The decision to come back was definitely a tough one, but I had to realize that it wasn’t so much about football. Getting my degree is huge for me.”
— Jahan Dotson