Today, ESPN ranked their top 25 most important players (insider) for the upcoming season. No shocker here that Irish safety Kyle Hamilton was included on the list, at #24, which you might think is low, but it’s not at all. He was included in the “pure transcendence potential” group which isn’t too shabby.

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That got me thinking about if Hamilton can elevate his game in what could be his final season in South Bend. Can he be better than what we’ve seen him do over the last two years?

The simple answer is yes, but where can he get better? Last year we saw him playing in the box more and blitzing, but that was within Clark Lea’s defense. Now that Marcus Freeman has taken over, What else can Hamilton do?

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The star safety battled an ankle injury last year, but still put up an impressive 63 tackles and picked off a pass. This season, a healthy Hamilton should easily crack over 100 tackles but there’s still more he can do.

The junior’s interceptions dropped off by three from his freshman year, so that’s an area where Hamilton most likely will retrace back to his freshman form. He did break up 7 passes last year, so the chances should be there this fall. Teams won’t often test him, but Hamilton is so great at reading quarterbacks eyes, that it won’t matter.

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Another area he could improve on is sacks, he has yet to register one in his career. Expect Freeman to try and disguise what his star defender will do, and that includes blitzing from many different spots.

Hamilton has the ability and opportunities to fill the stat sheet up this fall. If I had to guess, he’ll do just that on his way to another All-American type season.