Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 NOV. 7, 2020 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI A t the 2016 Tony Awards, the enormously popular musical "Hamilton" received a record- breaking 16 nominations and earned 11 awards. It also received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Plenty of awards and accolades on the grand stage await Notre Dame's own (Kyle) Hamilton, the 6-4, 219-pound sophomore safety prototype. A 2019 Freshman All-American, Hamilton led the team in intercep- tions (four), was second in passes broken up (six) and seventh in tackles (41) while having mainly a part-time role behind now graduated captains Alohi Gilman (Los Angeles Chargers) and Jalen Elliott (Detroit Lions). During Notre Dame's 5-0 start this year, prior to returning to his home- town of Atlanta versus Georgia Tech, Hamilton paced the team in stops despite missing the second half of the season opener versus Duke and the entire USF game with an ankle injury. "He covers ground like no safety that I have coached," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "He plays with physicality. He's smart. He's a terrific football player. His presence is felt out there. He closes. "He's an eraser, too. Just by his size, he makes it difficult for teams to go into his area, whether it's in run game or pass game." If Hamilton is caught up in the adulation, he covers it as well as he does receivers in his area of the field. "In terms of people saying I'm a star or whatever, that's good and all but I try not to get caught up in that," he said. "I try not to look too much into social media and stuff like that. "Just try to be myself and keep down the path that I'm going, be- cause distractions, all they do is just slow me down. If I stay to myself and follow my orders and do my job, I feel like I'll be successful." He didn't even take umbrage to originally having the relatively aver- age three-star ranking at Atlanta's Marist School prior to his senior year. "When I first saw I was a three star, I was excited," he revealed. "… I hadn't been really on the recruiting trail in camps or stuff like that. I didn't really get caught up in stars, but I was like, 'Oh, wow, I'm actually like on a web- site.' It was kind of eye opening." Far beyond his physical skill set is his mental preparation as a student of the game. This was reflected in how he carried his notebook from team meetings even out to the practice field in the walk-through sessions. "I kind of realized that's where in the walk-through I started to learn more about the game plan than if we were in our meetings," Hamil- ton noted. "I thought it would be useful to take a book out there and take notes without messing up in the walk-through: what I'm doing right in the walk through, what my coaches are adjusting … so I can have that to refer to and kind of set myself up for better play on Saturday and set my teammates up for better play." By the end of his senior year at Marist and freshman campaign at Notre Dame, keeping a low profile or being inconspicuous was no longer possible, although not from a lack of trying. "Football is a big part of my life," Hamilton said. "Football, school, my family, all that. But once I'm done with football, once I feel like I've got the game plan down, I try to leave all that in a different space … just being a regular college kid. "That kind of keeps me humble just knowing I'm never too big a deal. At the end of the day I'm just myself and I don't need to be caught up in acco- lades or he's this or he's that. "I feel like once I start doing that is when I start falling off. I feel like I've just got to be the kid that I've always been, and that will make me my best." Hamilton has had a tendency to be ahead of the curve in all phases of his life, including academically at the col- lege prep Marist School. The academic excellence of Notre Dame was part of his appeal to the school, and he has been undaunted by the requirements. "A lot of people who leave there say that Marist is actually harder than college," said Hamilton, who scored a 30 on his ACT and enrolled in the Mendoza School of Business. "Honestly, I'd probably say the same — no disrespect to Notre Dame. Marist has a large workload, and a lot of people doing extra curricu- lars as well. It's a good foreshadowing for what's going to come in college and it prepares you very well. "Here at Notre Dame … people come from all over the world. It's just a bigger, better experience I get here as a person, not only football. I feel like I've grown more as a result from being here." What has helped advance him on the field is having seen his father, Derrek, drafted by the NBA and a 13- year professional basketball player in Europe, train pro athletes in both the NFL and NBA, including Pro Bowl players such as lineman Bob Whit- field and running back Jamal Ander- son, who both starred in Atlanta. "It showed me how to work like a pro and how and why everybody is not a pro — because it takes a lot of work," Hamilton said. "Even if you have the most talent in the world, you still have to work harder than anybody else. … You have to work in order to get what you want." The grand stage remains well set for him. ✦ SETTING THE STAGE Kyle Hamilton has long prepared himself for stardom on and off the field through both sweat and humility Despite his many accolades and visible impact on the playing field in his first two seasons with the Irish, Hamilton remains humble and focused as a student of the game. His thorough preparation even included bringing his notebook from team meetings out to the practice field for capturing additional details during walk-through sessions. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS "Here at Notre Dame … people come from all over the world. It's just a bigger, better experience I get here as a person, not only football. I feel like I've grown more as a result from being here." HAMILTON