Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton named to Bednarik Award watch list

Monday will go down as a day that forced the college football world to keep an eye on two particular Notre Dame players in 2021. One is Kyren Williams, who was named to the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award, which goes to the player deemed the best in college football. The other is Kyle Hamilton, who has earned the same honor for the Bednarik Award, which is awarded to the best defensive player of a given season:

Like with Williams and the Maxwell Award, Hamilton winning the Bednarik Award would share Manti Te’o earning the same honor in 2012. To do that, Hamilton will have to keep up his numbers in one area while improving in another. His 63 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss in 2020 both were improvements from the previous season. However, he had one interception, down from four in 2019.

It won’t an easy task for Hamilton, but he certainly has the potential.