SOUTH BEND − Spend nine minutes with Notre Dame football redshirt freshman offensive lineman Guerby Lambert on a Tuesday evening in late September, and it’s like traveling back 29 years.
Back to a time before college athletes came with a price tag. Back to a time when the game and everything about it were less cluttered and clearer. Back to a time when what players did across campus in the classroom mattered as much – sometimes more – than Saturdays on the football field.
Back before money seemed to be all that mattered.
Listening to Lambert speak, you realize that there can indeed still be college athlete unicorns.
Lambert is one. A big one. At 6-foot-7 and 335 pounds, the Irish starting right guard not only is among the biggest on the team, he might be the brightest. Coming out of Catholic Memorial High School in Boston, Lambert’s college choices were Notre Dame and Harvard, and not necessarily in that order.
In his family, athletics was never more important than academics, something he learned from his parents, Guerline and Kenser Lambert.
“They instilled in me being at the top of my class every single year,” said Lambert, sweat still spilling down his face and off his goatee from Tuesday’s practice. “I remember my mom, if a report card comes back and I got a 99 in class, and next time I got a 97, she’s on top of me about that. They’ve always pushed me to try and be my best and be the best in everything I do.”
With size, skills, and smarts, Lambert could go anywhere to play college football. He sought something against the grain of what college athletes look for today. He sought a school that would prepare him for when the first downs and the touchdowns no longer mattered.
Lambert only started playing football as a high school sophomore. Basketball and soccer were his sports of choice before his soccer coach considered him too big for the pitch. Before his trainer met with Lambert’s mother and said, you know, football might open many an academic door for her son.
Guerline Lambert balked. The sport was too dangerous, too much of a risk of serious injury. Then she learned that Lambert could go to school – a good academic school – possibly for free. Her stance softened.
It always circled back to the classroom.
“They know that academics can open a billion doors for you,” Lambert said. “That’s why I ultimately chose Notre Dame. I know that, along with football, academics is going to open a lot of doors for me.”
Lambert’s opening a few himself.
He’s not one of those meatheads who spend every waking hour crushing film at the Gug, then crushing weights in workouts while sliding by doing the minimum with the books. He’s an economics major at Notre Dame. He finished one mid-term Monday and has more on the horizon. His days are filled with morning football meetings, followed by class, practice, additional meetings, and then homework. Maybe mix in a few hours of sleep somewhere.
He took chemistry during the summer session before his first year of college. One of his classes this semester is Intermediate Theory for Microeconomics.
“I’ve taken a lot of tough classes so far,” Lambert said.
Taken them while learning about life as a starter. First time out this season against Miami (Fla.), Lambert felt flat-footed in adjusting to how fast everything moved. The play, the huddle, the next call, the next play, then rinse and repeat. He thought he was ready for everything. Turns out he wasn’t ready for anything,
“The next play is up before you know it,” he said. “You’ve got to reload, have the mentality to forget the (last) play and just move.”
Lambert wasn’t happy with how he played in South Florida, but has improved each week in practice, then each Saturday in game action. He was better against Texas A&M, then even better against Purdue.
He’s gone from thinking about the game to playing the game. Big step. Big difference.
“With experience, a lot of good things are going to happen,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about what I’m going to do on this play. It becomes second nature, where your hand is going to be, where your foot is going to be.
“It’s more of an instinct.”
More reps have helped. More film study has helped. More conversations with the guy next to him, right tackle Aamil Wagner, have helped. There may be no higher standard inside the walls of Notre Dame football than along the offensive line. First week out, that Irish line did not meet that standard. Failed big.
For the O-Line, it was first time, last time.
“We look back at the Miami game, there’s probably every single play we wish we could take back,” Lambert said. “We say that we never want to have that feeling again, so that every time, every play, we have to go with intent and go with full effort.”
The unit improvement hasn’t gone unnoticed. Heading into Saturday’s game at Arkansas, much about this Irish football team needed fixing/tweaking. The offensive line wasn’t one of them.
“There’s been really good progress across the board,” said offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock.
“I’m as confident in the entire offensive line as I’ve ever been,” said head coach Marcus Freeman.
Why them? Why now? Easy, Lambert said.
“We’ve started to move with more intent,” he said. “We’re not going through the motions.”
Say the same for Lambert – on and off the football field.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Noie: It’s not just all football all the time for one Notre Dame football starter
Reporting by Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
