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WACO — Baylor nose guard Trey Bryant probably has witnessed the maturation of Jason Lamb better than anyone.
Lamb and Bryant were high school teammates at Richardson Berkner, where they both graduated in 2005. They even roomed together during their freshman year at Baylor.Now as seniors, Bryant has watched Lamb develop from a tall and gangly prospect to a rugged contributor."Lamb’s made a lot of growth," Bryant said. "Jason played tight end in high school, and he even played tight end his first year at Baylor and they tried to move him to offensive tackle, but he didn’t want to do that."He played defensive end in high school, so I knew he was going to be good at it. How big he is [6-foot-5, 275 pounds], and he can run, too, so I knew it was going to be good transition for him."The Bears (3-5, 0-4 Big 12) have played him on several occasions at defensive tackle.As a senior at Berkner, Lamb was second-team all-state at tight end and on defense, where he recorded 104 tackles, 11 sacks and 27 quarterback hurries."Jason obviously brings a lot of versatility to us," linebacker Joe Pawelek said. "Being able to play outside and inside is a huge deal for us. "He’s got the speed to be able to play on the outside. But then when he brings that speed on the inside, I think he brings some problems for those interior linemen."Lamb said it doesn’t matter at which defensive spot the Bears utilize him. He just wants to be in the mix."There’s certain things about each position that I like, so I can’t really say that I prefer one to the other," he said. "I just like being out there."Lamb has 24 tackles, two sacks, two blocked kicks and an interception entering Baylor’s 1 p.m. game at Missouri (5-3, 1-3). "Jason is just another great guy in our program, one that inspires me, quite honestly," coach Art Briles said. "I get inspiration with a lot of different people and a lot of times it’s from our players, because he’s a guy that’s like a bunch of others on our football team."He comes ready to go to work every day to improve, do what he does to help us as a teammate and represent this university."Center J.D. Walton of Allen simply likes the intensity Lamb brings to the field on every play."The guy is just hard-nosed, he practices his butt off every day we come out here to practice and plays his butt off in the games," Walton said. "He’s just a hard worker, and never takes a day off."I have lots of respect for the guy."Although things haven’t gone as planned for the Bears in 2009, Lamb said he can still hold his head high knowing the Baylor program is in much better shape now than when he arrived."The whole thing coming into the season this year is we’re going in the right direction," Lamb said. "We had a few setbacks, and things haven’t really worked out exactly how we wanted to."But I don’t really feel like [because of injuries to key players] this season is a true reflection of the whole program. I know a lot of people will probably get down or jump ship, but there’s no worries to me at all about Baylor football."Dwain Price, 817-390-7760
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