Notre Dame football: 3 most impactful defensive players of the Brian Kelly era

No. 3 Kyle Hamilton

Kyle Hamilton still has two years of eligibility left at Notre Dame, three if he were to take advantage of the free season that everyone was granted due to the pandemic. Don’t expect to get more than one more season out of Hamilton in a Notre Dame uniform, though, as he’s as likely as anyone in the country to go pro after his true Junior season in 2021.

For the past two seasons, Hamilton has been the best player on the Irish defense, patrolling the secondary from his safety position. It’s been a secondary that’s missing players capable of winning matchups in one-on-on, less athletic than their opponents’ best wide receivers.

However, Hamilton covers this up.

Whether Hamilton is playing over the top and closing in on the ball once it’s thrown or stepping up into man coverage, he is an eraser in the back half of the defense. More than just a coverage player, Hamilton steps up in run support too.

He’s also a sure tackler, who keeps the play in front of him and is too athletic to get run past by anyone on the field.

Hamilton, a former 4 or 5-star recruit depending on which site evaluated him, also represents a new recruitment pipeline that Kelly and the Notre Dame program have been working on. That’s the Georgia-Carolinas region. With Atlanta and Charlotte booming, these states have become massively important to recruiting.

A lot of the best talent in the country comes from here, usually going to SEC schools or Clemson. Sometimes, landing one player like Hamilton is enough to open that pipeline up, and help a program grow substantially.

If there’s something the Rose Bowl proved, it’s that there’s a talent gap that Notre Dame needs to make up for between themselves and teams like Alabama. This pipeline is key to closing that gap. In only two seasons at Notre Dame, Kyle Hamilton has 104 tackles, five interceptions, and 12 pass break ups. Hamilton was All-ACC in 2020.