How DC Marcus Freeman Sees Notre Dame Football Safety Position Playing Out
Notre Dame only has one Kyle Hamilton. Heck, college football only has one Kyle Hamilton.
The junior safety has appeared on multiple preseason first-team All-America lists. He’s almost a lock for first-round NFL Draft consideration if he stays healthy and has the season pundits project him to. He just might be the best safety in the country.
Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman knows how special Hamilton is. He also knows the other defensive backs on the Irish’s roster can’t physically play at his same level.
Remember, there’s only one of him.
That doesn’t stop Freeman from trying to get them close to Hamilton's level, though.
“I try to put even more pressure on those guys because I hope they want [to be elite],” Freeman said. “‘Coach, hold me to the standard you hold Kyle Hamilton to.’ That’s what I want. ‘Hold me to a standard of the best. And if I’m not the best, coach me and get on me.’”
Seniors Houston Griffith and DJ Brown have been going head-to-head trying to earn the starting safety job opposite of Hamilton. Griffith has appeared to be ahead in that battle, but Freeman isn’t sold on where the position stands as a whole through a week and a half of fall camp.
“I think we’ll need them both,” Freeman said. “We’ll need, like I said, a 1A and a 1B. That’s still an ongoing competition. I know we’ll need both of them. And we’ll need another. We’re going to need four, maybe five or six [safeties].”
Hamilton, Griffith, Brown. There are three. Freeman said he feels “really good” about how that trio will fare this season. Who else can be tossed into that category? That’s something that’ll be determined during the rest of fall camp.
Notre Dame just isn’t quite there in figuring it out.
“That’s a position that [safeties coach Chris] O’Leary has tried to develop,” Freeman said. “We have to develop that safety position and be unique in how we do it. Try different guys out. Try corners out. Try safeties out. Continue to develop the depth of the position.”
Junior KJ Wallace and true freshman Justin Walters could bring to total number of contributors to five for Freeman and company. In last week’s full practice observed by the media, Wallace actually played ahead of Brown with the second team at strong safety. Walters backed Hamilton up at free safety.
Wallace embodies one of Freeman’s most crucial teaching points.
“KJ plays fast,” Freeman said. “He plays the game fast. That’s something I’ve told them; to have success on defense, you have to play fast. You have to play fast.”
Walters, meanwhile, has come a long way from where he was when he enrolled early and got his first Notre Dame practice reps during the spring session.
“He’s leaps and bounds past where he was when he was here in the winter,” Freeman said.
Better than a wide-eyed teenager getting thrown into college competition for the first time isn’t what Freeman is looking for from Walters, though. He should be better than that. Everyone on the roster should be better than that.
Freeman is going to rotate defensive backs regularly during the season. Hamilton is obviously going to play, and play a lot. But so will Griffith. And Brown. And Wallace and Walters, too. Junior Litchfield Ajavon might even get some looks beyond special teams as well.
And when any of those players get between the white lines, Freeman expects greatness.
“My job is to hold you to a standard of a (starter) when you step onto the field,” Freeman said. “I try to continue to remind these guys it’s because I want to coach you to be better.”
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