Thinking man's tackle: How Guerby Lambert spurned hometown Harvard for Notre Dame football

SOUTH BEND — For someone who turned down Harvard to pursue a civil engineering degree while playing for Notre Dame football, Guerby Lambert certainly has an appetite for destruction.

The newly enrolled freshman right tackle’s highlight tape from his high school days at Catholic Memorial in Roxbury, Mass., is a collection of one pancake block after another. Drive blocking assignments tended to result in various sons of New England landing flat on their backs, sometimes 20 yards downfield.

“I guess it would be the goal,” Lambert said recently. “It’s fun, but at the end of the day I just want to do the best I can for my block. Sometimes that’s going to be the result of the play, but sometimes it has, not purposely, hurt the play. It’s always fun to get one.”

Along the way, Lambert has noticed the cumulative effect of the devastation he’s left in his wake.

“It definitely demoralizes their spirits as the game goes on,” the 6-foot-7, 320-pounder said of opponents. “Especially if it happens early in the game. You can tell that they don’t really want to play anymore.”

Before you chalk that up to competition level, keep in mind that Lambert was a high school teammate of Boubacar Traore, the rising star at Vyper end for Notre Dame’s defense.

“We’re pretty close,” said Lambert, who was a year behind Traore with the Knights. “We talk here and there. We talk in the locker room. We say, ‘What’s up?’ “

What might have been legendary matchups in practice never came to pass. Knights coach John DiBiaso didn’t pit the first stringers against each other in the interest of roster preservation.

“Our coach back home, he didn’t let us,” Lambert said. “He didn’t put the ones against the ones because we had a lot of injuries.”

That doesn’t mean Lambert isn’t looking forward to some showdowns with Traore, a pass-rushing force in limited opportunities last season. Once fall camp opens on July 31, Traore will be looking to pick up where he left off in the Blue-Gold Game.

“He definitely is chatty,” Lambert said. “I remember playing next to him. He talks a lot. That would definitely be fun. Going up against another guy in practice is fun, but going against him would be a little extra fun.”

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Joe Alt's advice to Guerby Lambert

Before committing to Notre Dame last September, Lambert did extensive homework on the academic possibilities with the Irish.

In particular, he remembers a Zoom call with coach Marcus Freeman, recruiting dynamo Chad Bowden and All-America left tackle Joe Alt. The connection there wasn’t just about Alt’s ability to earn a starting spot by midway through his freshman year.

Lambert was just as curious about Alt’s academic track as a mechanical engineering major.

“He told me how he was able to do both at the same time while being pushed hard academically,” Lambert said.

Even after leaving a year early for the NFL, where the Los Angeles Chargers made Alt the fifth overall pick in April’s draft, Alt is well on track to earn his degree by next spring.

Lambert, who has inherited Alt's No. 76 jersey, has already jumped into three challenging classes amid summer conditioning and overall orientation: chemistry, Intro to Africana Studies and academic resilience.

“I was looking for a school that would fulfill my needs academically and challenge me,” Lambert said. “Notre Dame and Harvard both are known for their high academics but Notre Dame more for football than Harvard. I chose a great place in Notre Dame because they are going to push me academically and give me the hardest classes, but it’s going to pay off with a degree.”

And while Harvard offers a civil engineering degree as well, Lambert didn’t hesitate when asked if he was missing out on anything academically by choosing big-time college football over the Ivy League.

“I’m not really missing much,” he said. “I feel like everything I could have got there I could get here. Obviously, Harvard is probably more known for academics, but after touring both places I don’t feel like I’m missing anything really.”

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Wingspan and nimble footwork power Guerby Lambert

Lambert says it was Freeman who gave him the “Dancing Bear” nickname, a nod to his advanced footwork and competitive soccer background.

Mainly used as a center fullback on defense, Lambert played through his freshman year and was still blowing up opposing forwards as a towering presence on the backline.

“I’d say I was 6-2-ish, 6-3,” he said. “I played goalie a couple games, sometimes to fill in. I liked playing it, but it wasn’t my permanent position.”

With a wingspan that has reached 7-1 (and counting), the notion of Lambert in goal seems tantalizing. A devout Manchester City follower along with his father, Lambert brightened when someone mentioned Chelsea would be playing at Notre Dame Stadium in late July.

“Oh, wow,” he said. “I didn’t know that.”

Lambert wouldn’t mind meeting Chelsea winger Raheem Sterling, who scored 91 goals while playing for Man City from 2015-22.

Four days after that friendly against Celtic FC, Lambert will start his first fall camp with the Irish. He’s well aware that right tackle Blake Fisher is off to the NFL as a second-round pick of the Houston Texans.

That leaves a spirited camp battle to play out between Aamil Wagner, Sun Bowl starter Tosh Baker and maybe even a certain pancake-loving Dancing Bear from Roxbury, Mass.

Both Alt and Fisher made multiple starts at tackle as freshmen in 2021. Fisher, in fact, won the starting job from Day 1 but went down with a knee injury in the overtime win at Florida State.

“I didn’t know about that until after I committed,” Lambert said. “But seeing that as a possibility definitely got me excited. … It’s definitely more of a motivator than it is fear or nervousness. I think it motivates me more.”

Lambert credits Baker and Wagner for helping him learn the playbook and everything else he must master in this acclimation process. He’ll be looking to catch the eye of offensive line coach Joe Rudolph, but not at the expense of the typical building blocks that must be stacked along the way.

“I’m in no rush because of how much I trust these coaches,” Lambert said. “I trust that they’re going to put me in when I’m ready and when I can perform the best for the team.”

Call it another form of civil engineering.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football adds a cerebral mauler in freshman right tackle Guerby Lambert