Blue White Illustrated

T H E C L A S S O F 2 0 2 0 >> School and the city of Norfolk. He is the ultimate competitor in everything he does on and o= the ;eld, without a doubt. I know my coaching sta= and I have had the great pleasure of making an impact on this young man's life. He will be a great addition to the Penn State family." PHIL'S TAKE Lambert-Smith posted big receiving numbers throughout his high school career, but being the best pure athlete on the ;eld, he also played quar- terback at times during his senior season. He's an outstanding route-runner with the ability to create separation coming out of his cut. He posted a 3.83-second 20-yard shuttle time at The Opening last July. That is outstanding quickness, and it makes him very di>cult to cover one-on- one. Lambert-Smith also has excellent hands, catches the football at its apex and surprises you with his 4.5-second 40- yard speed. He's a January enrollee and is joining a receiver corps that lacks proven playmakers. Given those circumstances, I believe that he will have a chance to make an impact as a true freshman this coming fall. ■ F or a player with 31 o=ers, two o>cial visits aren't a whole lot. But to say that wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith made his decision to commit to Penn State based on those two visits – trips to Happy Valley and North Carolina in June – wouldn't be telling the whole story. In reality, Dyrri McCain, his coach at Maury High in Norfolk, Va., thinks his uno>cial visits to schools helped Lam- bert-Smith's decision-making process even more. "He didn't want the catered treat- ment," McCain said. "He didn't want to be courted and walked down the red car- pet. Every school he went to, he was paying attention to the ins and the outs, the atmosphere, the people, the educa- tion. He didn't need to go on every o>- cial visit to see who was going to bring out the best red carpet." When Lambert-Smith o>cially com- mitted in October, choosing the Nittany Lions over North Carolina, Ohio State, Clemson and Georgia, he rounded out the 2020 class as Penn State's highest- rated wide receiver recruit. And, just as McCain suggested, it was an uno>cial visit to University Park that stuck out in his mind. "I've been to the Ohio State White Out [in 2018]. Those games are crazy," Lam- bert-Smith said. "They probably have the best fans, or at least, one of the best fan bases in the entire country. That at- mosphere was ridiculous. It was truly a big-time atmosphere. … That's one thing that really stands out about the school. Their fans and game day [atmos- phere] were awesome." Although his lead recruiter, wide re- ceivers coach Gerad Parker, later de- parted to become o=ensive coordinator at West Virginia, Lambert-Smith will have a chance to play in White Out games – and perhaps sooner rather than later. In his senior season at Maury, Lam- bert-Smith posted gaudy numbers on a team that ;nished 16-0 and won the Virginia Group 5A state title for the ;rst time in 80 years. He ;nished the year with more than 1,500 yards from scrim- mage to go with 26 touchdowns. McCain said Lambert-Smith spent the previous o=-season focused on improv- ing his abilities with the ball in his hands, an area he hadn't explored as much earlier in his high school career. "He knew he was going to draw those double-teams or triple-teams with the safety over the top, so what skill do you have to [improve] to still have a produc- tive season?" McCain said. "He knew he had to get better with the ball in his hands, so we could give him the ball in the back;eld or have him catching screens or whatever, to eliminate that double-team." Adding that aspect to his game is likely to prove invaluable upon his ar- rival at Penn State. The receiver posi- tion is the team's most notable question mark heading into the 2020 season, and Lambert-Smith should have every chance to compete for snaps as a true freshman. He's listed at 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, and while he'll likely bulk up this sum- mer, he would already be an average- sized receiver among the Nittany Lions. What's more, he has a skill set that he's continually working to re;ne, one that makes him a candidate for a role in Kirk Ciarrocca's o=ense. "We're looking for guys with ball skills," tight ends coach Tyler Bowen said. "[Lambert-Smith] is a guy with elite ball skills, [as well as] very good short-area quickness, change-of-direction speed getting in and out of his breaks, and he's a winner. He came from a winning pro- gram, had a great senior year. He's set up to come in and be successful early." Lambert-Smith didn't want red carpet treatment U P C L O S E & P E R S O N A L | CLICK HERE to see video of Lambert-Smith in action. SEE LAMBERT-SMITH PAGE 55

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