Sophomore nose guard Kurt Hinish is used to unglamorous work.
While working for his father Kurt Sr.’s construction company in the summers, he did everything from pour concrete to shovel what was estimated in one day as seven tons of stone that he then had to haul in a wheelbarrow.
The blue-collar background and advanced hand technique (more on that later) enabled him to be one of the top surprises on the 2017 Notre Dame team that finished 10-3 and No. 11 in the final Associated Press poll.
Both Hinish and classmate Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa cracked the two-deep along the defensive line while leapfrogging several upperclassmen.
As the backup to standout defensive lineman Jerry Tillery, Hinish was credited with 177 snaps in his 12 game appearances (about 15 per contest) to earn a monogram.
This year, with Tillery moved to three-technique to better utilize his playmaking skills, Hinish and fifth-year senior Jonathan Bonner (who started all 13 games at three-technique last year) will have the tag-team partnership at nose
Both Bonner and Hinish also have special motivation in their lives with parents who have battled or still fighting cancer. Bonner’s mother, Consuelo Hampton, has been waging a war against endometrial cancer incurred last fall, which is what prompted Bonner initially to opt to not return for a fifth season in 2018 after earning his IT management degree in December.
For Hinish, his father was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in 2013 and a softball-sized tumor required 17 hours of surgery and a not-so-promising prognosis.
“He was supposed to be in a coma for a couple of weeks, and he woke up five minutes after the surgery,” Hinish marveled.
Soon thereafter, Kurt Sr. watched his son debut for top power Pittsburgh Central Catholic — after going to work, of course, despite chemotherapy beforehand. He didn’t miss a game, or even a scrimmage, thereafter, including all of Notre Dame’s home games last year.
“He used to get chemotherapy on Thursday afternoons, and on Thursday night he would drive up,” Hinish said. “He just wouldn’t give up … One of the toughest guys I’ve ever met in this entire world, and I’ve met some tough guys...
"[He’s] someone that I really look up to and it motivates me every single day."
This winter Kurt Sr. received a clean bill of health from his treatments, while Kurt Jr. continued his development and refinement as a player.
“Last year I was a bull in a china shop,” Hinish summarized. “This year I will be a bull in a china shop with technique.”
His technique actually was well advanced for a college freshman. That and his blue-collar tenacity are what earned him playing time when it appeared he was destined for a redshirt season his first year. The Pittsburgh native said not only did he receive exceptional coaching at Central Catholic, but on occasion even had camp tutorials from former Pitt 2013 All-American defensive tackle Aaron Donald, a Penn Hills product and a first-round pick who already has been selected to four Pro Bowls while with the Los Angeles Rams.
Listed anywhere from 6-0 to 6-1 to 280-84 pounds, Donald serves as the model to emulate for the 6-1 ¾, 292-pound Hinish.
“I love watching Aaron Donald because he’s so slippery and he's about the same height as me … we’re kind of undersized interior defensive linemen,” Hinish said.
Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly said he’s never met a defensive lineman who can excel solely on strength, and it was the “hand work” of Hinish and Tagovailoa-Amosa that got them on the field so early.
“They just have to have that ability to shed and get off blocks.” Kelly said. “That’s just something he had when he got here.”
During his father’s recovery, Hinish also appreciated the bond he’s developed with his linemates and defensive line coach Mike Elston, who regularly has his group over to the house for some home cooking and conversation on any matters.
Hinish especially developed a taste for the chocolate chip cookies Elston’s wife, Beth, bakes — “they’re outrageous,” he complimented — and asked for the recipe while at home on Christmas break.
The recipe was handed over with a caveat: fulfilling the wish of her three young daughters to have Hinish take them to a daddy-daughter dance at their Christ The King grade school that Elston was unable to attend.
“I would do it again,” said Hinish of that Saturday night while enjoying the non-stop dancing for two hours. “It was a fun night. I was really sweaty. I was wearing a full suit, dancing with a bunch of 8-year-old girls ... and they had a lot more energy than I did.”
While Hinish’s heart is evident on the football field, it is equally discernible off it. A perk that Notre Dame players received for the appearance in the Jan. 1 Citrus Bowl was a $500 gift certificate to Best Buy. Hinish wanted to use it to buy his parents and two siblings a new dishwasher to replace the old one that had broken but was not replaced because of a tight family budget.
However, when he called his father for the measurements, Kurt Sr., suspected what was going on and wouldn’t give them.
“I ended up buying him a drone instead — he has a lot of fun with that,” said Hinish, who added that a dishwasher eventually was purchased by the family.
If needed, though, Hinish's hands could have done the job, just as he relies on them on the field.
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