Yesterday I wrote a bit of a tongue in cheek post on the “disrespect” that has been flowing Kyle Hamilton’s way by being omitted from the Jim Thorpe Watch List and most preseason All-American teams. I was joking. Kinda. But then today I saw this stat from Pro Football Focus, and thought, you know what, the kid is being disrespected.
Okay, here it is.
That is madness. Hamilton played 250 coverage snaps in all of 2019, and he allowed a passer rating of 1.3. To put that in perspective, Ian Book had a passer rating of 31.7 against Michigan, which was, by far, the worst start of his career. Remember how bad Book was that night? Kyle Hamilton made opposing quarterbacks look 30x worse for an entire damn season.
On the season, Hamilton allowed just seven passes to be completed on 22 attempts for a grand total of 74 yards all while intercepting four passes and not allowing a touchdown.
There better be a season this fall if, for nothing else, than to prevent Notre Dame fans from being robbed of one of three seasons of Hamilton because let’s be real folks, we aren’t getting a senior year out of him at this rate.
In the words of Red from Shawshank Redemption, “Some birds aren’t meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright.” Kyle Hamilton is one of those birds, folks.
Enjoy him while he is at Notre Dame because he is going to be one of those rare generational talents. He’s the safety version of Jaylon Smith, except he has an exceptional defensive coordinator who will get the most out of him, not waste his talents as Brian Vangorder did with Smith.
