Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2020 Notre Dame Football Preview
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112 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2020 FOOTBALL PREVIEW league coach gave his team playbooks — a generous way to describe a few sheets of pa- per stapled together — with basic formations and concepts. Hamilton would fall asleep with it on his chest. Derrek trained both sons at his gym, where they would run into his NBA clients like Jodie Meeks, Jordan Hill, Iman Shump- ert and others. It was primarily basketball training work, but that included agility and quickness drills that are translatable any- where. Ladder work and reaction balls were training staples. "You don't build a house without building a foundation, and the foundation in any sport is your feet," Derrek said. What had to follow next was his physical- ity. Hamilton was often the smallest kid on his youth teams. He was ordinarily built until ninth grade, maybe 110 pounds. When Tyler left for college in 2015, Kyle was several inches shorter than him (both of Tyler's col- lege teams listed him at 6-4). At his return for Christmas, though, the gap vanished. "Damn-near eye-to-eye with me," Tyler said. Basketball coaches noticed first. Hamil- ton's team, Stackhouse Elite, won the 15U Adidas Super 64 tournament in Las Vegas after his freshman year. He was, though, still built like a table leg. "I was always worried he would not get physical enough to be an effective football player," Marist coach Alan Chadwick said. "But his dad kept telling me, 'He's a football player.'" Chadwick had heard the reports from his lower-level coaches about a kid who had unteachable instincts for an eighth-grader and indisputable athleticism. He hoped bas- ketball wouldn't take over before ever get- ting the chance to work with him. When Hamilton came up to the varsity team as a sophomore, Chadwick used him primarily on defense. His first football offers followed after the season. "He just wants to be around the ball," Chadwick said. "His confidence in himself and his overall abilities as an athlete help him do a lot of things very well." The flood of offers came during and after his junior season. Notre Dame was, admit- tedly, a little late to the party, but not damag- ingly so because the fit made too much sense as an academically inclined athlete. He and Tyler went to academic camps at David- son College during grade-school summers. Marist is also sometimes called a "baby Notre Dame." "When Notre Dame came in the picture, boom, that was it," Chadwick said. "I think he was looking for the same scenario that he had at Marist." Pleasant Surprise Hamilton committed to Notre Dame in the spring of 2018 as a three-star recruit. By National Signing Day, he was the Irish's highest-rated defensive signee (No. 75 overall nationally per Rivals and No. 15 by 247Sports). He had momentum and the feeling his best stretch of football had only started. He had gained 80 pounds — the good kind — since starting high school. But before he left for South Bend, he couldn't help but wade through what he thought was reality. "He said, 'Mom, I'm a freshman; I'm not going to play,'" Jackie recalled. "He had no expectations. He was going to compete. When he committed, there were like 11 safe- ties or something on paper." That does not mean he questioned his sense of place. College was one step on the natural progression assumed long ago. He had never thought about getting cut in high school, and never even considered a college career in which he wouldn't play at the level he already has. Hamilton belonged there. The only surprise was the suddenness of his arrival. Then again, nothing is a coincidence when one knows where he's going. "You never know how well they're go- ing to transition in that huge step," Chad- wick said. "But I'm surprised it happened as quickly as it did. Hamilton was tabbed as a Freshman All-American by six media outlets in 2019, including Pro Football Focus. He finished among the five best safeties in the country in PFF coverage grade (89.7) and had more passes defended (10) than catches allowed (seven). PHOTO COURTESY FIGHTING IRISH MEDIA