Brian Kelly jokingly calls out Kyle Hamilton, addresses replacements

For the second-consecutive year, Notre Dame‘s Kyle Hamilton will not play a full game against North Carolina. Unfortunately, this year, he won’t be playing at all after suffering a knee injury against USC on Saturday.

“I’m mad at Kyle,” Irish head coach Brian Kelly said with a smirk on Monday. “He doesn’t want to play against North Carolina. He’s got something against them.”

Hamilton was ejected for targeting with a few minutes remaining in the first half during last year’s 31-14 victory in Chapel Hill. 

Perhaps a silver lining from last season’s ejection: it gave backup DJ Brown the opportunity to play alongside fellow safety Houston Griffith against the Tar Heels. The duo will have to work together again on Saturday. Kelly spoke about what he expects to see out of Brown and Griffith. 

“Their confidence in playing together…them playing high leverage snaps against USC, obviously they feel really good going into this game.” Kelly said.

Hamilton played just eight snaps before leaving Saturday’s contest.

The starter and Hamilton’s backup played relatively well against USC, although playing against Trojans wide receiver Drake London is always a challenge. They held UNC’s strong wide receiver room in check last year. After two early touchdowns, the Tar Heels did not score in the second half. UNC had just 58 yards after halftime.

Depth chart after Brown, Griffith remains undecided

Brown has 24 tackles on the season, while Griffth has 22. Brown also had an interception against Purdue in September. Kelly is unsure who will be the No. 2 free safety behind him.

“We’re going to have to do some things relative to the depth at that position,” Kelly added. “I think I stood up here Saturday night and said ‘Don’t pencil in Pryor at the safety position,’ but you might pencil in Pryor at the safety position after we met a little bit deeper on it.”

Isaiah Pryor is a rover who transferred from Ohio State prior to the 2020 season. He played safety for the Buckeyes.

There is a significant drop off in production after the four aforementioned players. KJ Wallace has been the No. 2 strong safety behind Griffith. No other safety has more than four tackles this season.

Notre Dame is a 3.5-point favorite over the visiting Tar Heels, a 4-3 team that has had one of the more disappointing seasons in college football. The Irish’s third-straight night game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Notre Dame and UNC have played 20 times, and the Irish have won 19 of the contests.