KeAndre Lambert-Smith promises more in wake of Rose Bowl record-setting performance
Days before his exclamation point performance in the Rose Bowl, KeAndre Lambert-Smith sized up his year. The receiver’s third at Penn State, he started and ended the regular season with good games.
The rest wasn’t necessarily what he’d expected or wanted, though.
Lamenting a midseason injury that diminished his reps significantly, Lambert-Smith described it as “a little adversity” he’d needed to push through. Finishing with a season-high 124 yards on three receptions, highlighted by an 88-yard, record-setting touchdown, he did just that on Monday afternoon in a 35-21 win over Utah in the Rose Bowl.
“It changed your perception (of my season) because I had a better game to end it, but I know what I’m capable of; I know what I do,” Lambert-Smith said. “So I mean, y’all are just going to see more. I keep saying that.”
KeAndre Lambert-Smith 2022 season
Penn State is counting on it from Lambert-Smith.
Beginning the season with four receptions for 58 yards and a touchdown at Purdue, his third season as a Nittany Lion started well enough. But, the injury sustained just two plays into Penn State’s win over Northwestern on Oct. 1 put a halt to his early season contributions.
Instead, blanked from the stat page against the Wildcats, at Michigan, and against Minnesota, Lambert-Smith finally pieced together weekly receptions in the program’s surge to close out the year. Delivering his best effort of the regular season against Michigan State to round out November, he caught five balls for 83 yards and a touchdown and complemented the effort with a beautiful 48-yard touchdown pass.
With a bit of momentum to carry him into Penn State’s bowl preparations, Lambert-Smith acknowledged the duality of his mindset leading into the Rose Bowl.
“I feel more myself. That boosted my confidence coming into the Rose Bowl, ending on a strong note,” he said. “But I just know what I’m capable of. That was nothing new to me. That’s just y’all finally getting to see what I can do.”
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With Lambert-Smith’s Rose Bowl performance, the most productive of his career in yards, it was also another demonstration of what his teammates and coaches have long hoped to see translate to game action.
Credited by quarterback Sean Clifford for setting up an easy pitch-and-catch with a perfectly executed double-move – “anybody could have thrown that one” – Lambert-Smith’s play broke open Penn State’s lead in the fourth quarter.
The play also offered head coach James Franklin another bit of positive reinforcement, both for the player and his teammates, regarding gradual development.
“I think KeAndre is a great story. I think all these players, they come to Penn State and they have in their mind this vision of how it’s going to go, and it very rarely goes that way,” Franklin said. “And KeAndre has just trusted the process and persevered. He’s extremely talented. I just think he has such a bright future.
“To see him have such a big night is great because there are so many lessons that are being taught through the game of football, and I’m proud of KeAndre and how far he’s grown, both personally and professionally.”
