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Hamler emergence critical to Lions' win

It had been two years since K.J. Hamler played a football game, and clearly, he was restless. Every time Appalachian State kicker Michael Rubino boomed another kickoff into the back of the end zone — three times in the first quarter alone -- Hamler paused before taking a knee. Johnathan Thomas appeared to have his hands full, making sure Hamler stayed put.

Hamler took his case to the top — Coach James Franklin.

“I was asking Coach, ‘Can I take it out? Can I take it out? Can I take it out?’” Hamler said. “He was like, ‘Follow the rules. Follow the rules.’ I’m like, ‘OK, I respect your decision.’”

Hamler grinned. “But when it came down to two minutes on the clock, I just took it out.”

Hamler took off for a 52-yard kickoff return late in the fourth quarter.
Hamler took off for a 52-yard kickoff return late in the fourth quarter.

It was a gutsy move, and it paid off. With 1:20 to play in the game and Penn State down by seven points, Rubino sailed another ball several yards deep, and again, Hamler paused. But this time, Thomas made no move to stop him, and Hamler scooted 52 yards down the sideline, putting Penn State in prime field position.

Thirty-eight seconds later, his 15-yard touchdown reception tied the score and sent the game into overtime.

“We’ve got a lot of belief in K.J., and we have for a long time,” Franklin said. “One of the things we probably have to look at is ways we can get his hands on the ball a little bit more offensively and on special teams, because he has a chance to change the game at any moment.”

Hamler was one of the team’s most talked-about players heading into the season—and also one of its most talkative. As a redshirt freshman, he earned the starting job at slot receiver ahead of senior DeAndre Thompkins, and his personality led Franklin to name him as one of the team’s leaders—the kind of player who brings the energy that Marcus Allen once did.

Which is why Franklin was a little concerned in the first half Saturday, when Hamler had caught only two passes for seven yards and wasn’t his talkative self. “He hadn’t said a word,” Franklin said, “and I think you guys know that the only thing faster than K.J.’s feet is his mouth.”

So Franklin talked to him, saying that he needed Hamler to “start talking and having some fun.” You play the way you practice, Franklin said, so get back to that.

And then in the second half, Hamler made three giant plays. In addition to the kickoff return and the score-tying touchdown, he extended his 5-foot-9 body to the limit to make a 46-yard reception early in the fourth quarter, setting up a two-yard touchdown run by his roommate, Miles Sanders, three plays later.

“When the ball is in his hands, he’s making big plays and making chunk plays,” quarterback Trace McSorley said. “And I think he gets everyone else excited with this mentality. When he gets excited and when he starts making those kinds of plays, he gets everyone else juiced up.”

But here’s the thing: Hamler said the talking doesn’t have anything to do with his game.

“When I talk crap in practice, I do it for the fun,” he said. “I do it because they’re my boys. I’ve never been the type to talk crap in a game. I’ll show you by my action.”

(When reporters suggested that Franklin may not understand than, Hamler laughed and answered, “He’ll learn. He’ll learn.”)

Hamler played three years of high school football at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in Detroit, the alma mater of former Penn State wide receiver star Allen Robinson. He transferred to IMG Academy in 2016, and then in his first preseason game, he tore his ACL on a non-contact play. Not only did he miss his entire senior season, but when he arrived at Penn State, he still wasn’t ready to play. So he had to redshirt.

He didn’t feel like he was back to being himself until spring ball, when he had finally broken through the scar tissue and gotten mobility back in his knee. “I was just cutting, running full speed like I usually do,” he said. “It was a blessing.”

Hamler’s speed and mobility were on full display in the final minutes of Saturday’s game, particularly on the kickoff return. “That was coaching,” Franklin said, joking. “That was coaching right there.”

Hamler knew he broke the rules, so to speak, on bringing the ball out. “If I would have got tackled on the 12, that would have been bad,” he said. “But I had to risk it. Sometimes you have to take a risk to do big things.”

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