No Pause for Notre Dame S Kyle Hamilton
It had been almost a month since Kyle Hamilton had played in a football game as the sophomore sprained his ankle in the second half against Duke.
The Georgia native was held out of the South Florida game and last weekend's scrimmage, but it showed to be the smart move as Hamilton led the Irish with eight tackles on Saturday night.
"Honestly, I feel it didn't take that long," Hamilton said of feeling comfortable during the 42-26 win over Florida State. "Our coaches create an environment in practice that I would say maybe is harder than the game. I felt like I came out prepared and I was up to speed from the get-go."
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for Notre Dame's defense as the Irish gave up over 400 yards of offense, but the Irish held Florida State to six points in the second half.
"It was fun," said Hamilton. "The defense had a couple rocky plays here and there, but we showed our resilience and I was glad to be part of it again."
Clark Lea's defense might not have been in game condition on Saturday after battling a two-week layoff and COVID, but Hamilton still felt the Irish wore out the Florida State offense.
"I'll give credit to Florida State," Hamilton said. "They were bringing it to us in the run game. I don't know his name, but No. 8 (La'Ddamian Webb) was pounding it on us. We just had to adapt and I think we did. Slowly, they started to fade away and we started to get stronger as the game went on."
Florida State did challenge the Irish in the second half before Shaun Crawford picked off Jordan Travis at the goal line.
It ended any threat from the Noles and it was another example of Crawford leading by example.
"Shaun is one of the best players on this team," stated Hamilton. "He's played more snaps than everybody in the DB room combined. He's seen a lot of football and he knows what he's doing. You never have to worry about him doing his job.
"I think he rubs off on everyone else in the room because we just want to all be great. We all hold each other accountable. I think the room as a whole is creating a good bond."
Notre Dame linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah also made sure to give the Irish a little energy boost in the second half with a bone-crushing hit.
Yet, it was probably the least surprising thing to see for Hamilton.
"You guys don't get to see it, but he does that every day in practice," said Hamilton. "It's another day playing football with Wu. He's one of the most athletic and versatile players I've ever played with and he shows you guys every Saturday, but shows us Monday through Sunday.
"It's a blessing to play with a guy like that. We just feed off his energy as a defense. That big hit he had, it just made us as a team take our energy to the next level."