Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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42 NOV. 27, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FOOTBALL RECRUITING BY DAVID MCKINNEY W hen Notre Dame linebacker com- mit Jack Lamb went down with a knee injury during the first game of his senior season, he instantly feared the worst. Less than a month after announc- ing his commitment to the Irish July 27, Lamb — the No. 65 overall player in the nation according to Ri- vals — was out of commission three quarters into the first game of his final prep season. The 6-4, 224-pounder watched from the sidelines that night, an ice pack taped to his knee, while Tem- ecula (Calif.) Great Oak started the season with a 42-0 loss. The situation looked bleak for Lamb and Great Oak, but Notre Dame's highest-rated linebacker commit in the 2018 class decided that he wasn't going out like that. "As soon as you get hurt, you're thinking about the worst possible scenario like, 'Was that really my last high school game,'" Lamb said. "That's not how I wanted it to end at all. Not only did I get hurt, but the game didn't go as well as we thought it would either. It was a pretty big blowout. "There was a lot of motivation for me to get back out there. We took a big loss, and I didn't perform as well as I thought I should." Plenty of high school football play- ers injure their knees, but most of them don't have a scholarship to play for a top-10 team in the country under their belts. There was talk of Lamb shutting down for the rest of the season, but he didn't want to hear it, and neither did his future position coach. Lamb said Notre Dame linebackers Clark Lea went from being instru- mental in his recruitment to being a strong advocate for his return to the field. "He was a huge pushing factor to get me to go to Notre Dame," Lamb said. "And when I did get hurt, it was super reassuring to know that they were going to stand behind my offer. "He even encouraged me to get through the injury and come back. Just the fact that they were there to help me through this whole time of adversity was awesome." Lamb had the green light to at least pursue a return to the field in 2017. "I didn't even know if I was going to able to play at all this season," Lamb said. "I thought I would have to get surgery, and that would be the end of it." However, an MRI revealed that there was no damage to Lamb's ACL, but rather some deep bruising of his patella. It was determined that he would sit out the next four to six weeks, and then be reevaluated. Lamb was fitted for a knee brace in early October, and returned to action for Great Oak Oct. 13. In a 41-3 win over Temecula (Calif.) Valley, Lamb played one quarter and totaled two tackles. With knee injuries, there's usu- ally some tentativeness to overcome when returning to the field, and Lamb went through that. "I was worried that I could do something again because this is al- ready the second time I've hurt it," Lamb explained. "But after running around and getting a brace, there was pretty much no worry for me as far as getting hurt again. "I'm pretty confident with how I've recovered, and I don't think I've got any risk of getting hurt any time soon. I'm trying to play as best as I can, and I think I'll play better with- out worrying about it." Fast forward to Nov. 3, the final game of Great Oak's regular season, a matchup with Murrieta (Calif.) Vista Murrieta, a team Great Oak had never beaten in school history. Lamb, knee brace and all, racked up 23 tackles, forced one fumble and recovered another, helping guide Great Oak to a 26-14 victory. Gaining confidence with each tackle, he knew he had silenced those who had cast doubts about his comeback efforts — himself included. "I feel like myself again," Lamb said. "Coming off the injury, I wasn't really sure how my body was going to respond to it and if I was going to be able to recover fully from it. "I think I proved to myself and to a lot of other people that I'm going to be fine." Following the 23-tackle perfor- mance in the regular-season finale, Lamb and Great Oak matched up with a 9-1 Valencia (Calif.) High in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs and fell 54-23. With his high school career now behind him, Lamb will take advan- tage of the early signing period and enroll at Notre Dame in January. ✦ Linebacker Commit Jack Lamb Battled Back From Injury Lamb, who is ranked as the No. 65 overall prospect nationally by Rivals, worked tirelessly to come back from an early season knee injury. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM