Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 NOV. 16, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED H aving an established player with 41 career games already logged at Notre Dame speak with envy about some 18-year- old freshman teammate, who has played in only nine games, says something about the respect senior cor- nerback Troy Pride Jr. holds for Irish rookie safety Kyle Hamilton. A lot of players have come and gone since Pride became a mainstay in the Irish secondary in 2016, but none of them ever busted on the scene the way Ham- ilton has. "He has three intercep- tions on the year," Pride said of Hamilton before the Duke game. "That's three more than me!" So when head coach Brian Kelly suggested last week that Hamilton could hit the proverbial freshman wall, Pride ex- pressed some skepticism. "Kyle is special," Pride said. "So there's no wall, there's no ceiling, there's no roof or anything." Hamilton wasted no time catching the attention of Pride and his other Irish teammates by intercepting three passes during his first official Notre Dame practice to open training camp at Culver Academies Aug. 5. "He's a freshman!" senior corner- back Jalen Elliott shouted in delight that day after Hamilton's third pick. Kelly, who has incessantly tried to calm the hype surrounding Hamil- ton, wasn't quite as enthusiastic. "I'd write him up as having a good first day. I really didn't see him," Kelly deadpanned. "He probably played with the younger guys when he was in there. That's a good first day. Good for him." But as hard as Kelly has tried to soft-sell his budding star, Hamilton's performance and production through training camp and three-quarters of the season are impossible to miss. In only 26 total snaps two week- ends ago against Virginia Tech, Ham- ilton recorded four tackles, one pass broken up and a game-clinching in- terception, earning a spot on the Pro Football Focus Team of the Week. So while the rest of the football world continues to heap praise on this soon-to-be first-team Freshman All-American, Kelly continues to try to keep Hamilton grounded. It took the coach more than a month to finally admit what was ob- vious to everybody else. "As much as I've been trying to tamp down Kyle Hamilton for Heis- man," Kelly joked, "he's a really good player that has showed up ev- ery day in some fashion." Most folks have realized already that Hamilton could someday end up as the best defensive player Kelly has ever recruited and eventually make his case as the best safety ever to play here. Hamilton is 6-4 and 210 pounds, runs like a deer and hits like a truck. His long legs and gliding strides give him some the best closing speed in the college game, and his reach and instincts always find him around the football. Notre Dame safeties coach Terry Joseph shared a humorous recruiting story from when he went to watch Hamilton play for the first time at Marist School — an elite college preparatory acad- emy near Atlanta. "You see this kid play and move around and you're like, 'Oh, my God,'" Joseph recalled. "How can I keep this from the rest of the world?" Not even five minutes into his first career game at Notre Dame Stadium, Hamilton intercepted a de- flected pass and scampered 35 yards for his first career touchdown. "What comes easy for him is roaming the middle of the field, great instincts, vision," said Kelly, suggest- ing that tackling, condition- ing and weight training are the areas Hamilton needs to improve on. "I think that's going to take care of itself. … He has a huge upside." A sure bet to move from backup to starter next season, Ham- ilton is much more than a gifted foot- ball player. Marist, where enrollment is about 1,000 students and the annual tuition is more than $20,000, sends an av- erage of three students per year to Notre Dame. Hamilton is the first player from Marist on an Irish foot- ball scholarship since kicker/punter Rob Leonard in 1993. And while most Notre Dame stu- dent-athletes try to one-up each other through their athletic achievements, Hamilton, Elliott and veteran Irish safety Alohi Gilman have a wager on which of them will graduate college with the highest GPA. "It was like the perfect storm," Jo- seph said of Hamilton's well-round- edness. "It was a kid who was very level-headed, knew what he wanted. And basically at Marist, he went to a little Notre Dame. So it was kind of already set up for us." Looks like things are also set up for Hamilton. ✦ Irish Freshman Phenom Is Hard To Miss UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com Kyle Hamilton, a precocious freshman safety from Atlanta, led the team with three interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, and had made 28 tackles (18 solo) through eight games. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS