Brian Kelly: Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton likely out for regular season
Kyle Hamilton’s regular season is likely over.
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly was as forthcoming as he has been about the status of his junior All-American safety since he injured his knee Oct. 23 against USC. Kelly gave an injury timeline for the first time since then during his Monday press conference: six weeks.
Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech (3-7) will come exactly four weeks after the injury took place. For the math majors out there, the following week’s game against Stanford (3-7) will mark five weeks. Long story short, Hamilton probably won’t play in either matchup — even if Kelly wouldn't explicitly say so.
“Six weeks would take him through the end of the regular season,” Kelly said. “And then we’d have to see where we are with the College Football Playoff, bowl games, things like that.”
Kelly said last week that when Hamilton is medically cleared to play, he’s done everything he's needed to do to get back on the field. But will Hamilton suit up in blue and gold one last time to play in a bowl game if Notre Dame does not qualify for the CFP? That's a potential hot button topic to discuss three weeks from now.
Hamilton has missed three straight games with the knee injury. He's been active in rehabbing in the weight room and observing practices from the sideline. He's been on the sideline for all three of those games too.
Kelly added more clarity to what exactly has held Hamilton out and forced the six-week timeline.
“There was some meniscus involvement, but that is no longer an issue,” Kelly said. “There's no meniscus [damage] at all. He's got a great meniscus. This is much more about the healing around the knee itself. There's no structural damage at all.”
Kelly added, “I’m not a doctor, so I don’t want to give too much information here. But there is tissue and fibers, that kind of connective tissue and fiber around the joint and the knee, and they get pinched or pulled. That's the issue that has to heal. So it just takes some time.”
Hamilton had 34 tackles, two tackles for loss, three interceptions and four passes defended in the six games and one quarter he played against USC.
ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has Hamilton rated as the No. 2 overall prospect for the 2022 draft. Hamilton will likely forego his senior season at Notre Dame to enter the draft. If he does, it's possible Hamilton has played his final game in a Notre Dame uniform.
As Kelly said, it'll be dependent on the Irish's postseason outlook. At 9-1 and No. 9 in the most recent College Football Playoff rankings, the Irish have an outside chance of sneaking in. ESPN, though, tweeted Sunday that Notre Dame has the third-best odds of making the playoff as any team in the country at 60%. Only Georgia (96%) and Alabama (64%) boasted better percentages.
It's hard to imagine Hamilton won't want to be a part of a team playing for a chance to reach the national title game if Notre Dame does indeed work its way into a semifinal appearance. But in this era of college athletics, anything is possible.
First things first: Notre Dame has to take care of Georgia Tech at home Saturday and Stanford on the road on Nov. 27. If the Irish win those games, it will finish with at least 11 wins for the fourth time in Kelly's 12-year tenure.
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