With spring football underway for Rutgers, Kyonte Hamilton trades in his headgear for a helmet as he makes the transition from wrestler to defensive lineman.
“It’s been a pretty fun ride,” Hamilton said. “It’s just getting back into the shape for football, wrestling shape and football shape’s different but it’s been a pretty easy transition.”
As a freshman, Hamilton played in all 13 games and made one start for the Scarlet Knights. He also recorded 22 tackles with two for loss.
“As a freshman just being able to play like that, I had fun doing it and I’m glad the coaches showed trust in me,” he said. “I loved having that experience freshman year because it sets me up for a better sophomore year.”
Despite already having a level of experience, Hamilton feels he has much more to learn and room to grow both figuratively and literally.
“I pick up the plays pretty easily but I still have a lot of room to improve,” he said. “I still got to get bigger and am still one of the young guys but I’ve been doing pretty well, I’m making the adjustments I need to I just got to keep improving every day.”
Coming off a 5-8 season, Hamilton feels this Rutgers team has a good blend of veteran players and young guys who are looking to prove themselves.
“The veteran guys are doing great at guiding the younger guys so we’re all doing pretty well,” he said. “It’s just coming together, being a closer bond in the room and on the field just making us better, and then every day just working at it and being the hard workers we are is just making us a great defensive line and team.”
Following Robb Smith’s departure to Duke in December, the Scarlet Knights named Joe Harasymiak their defensive coordinator. Prior to his hire, Harasmiyak spent the past four seasons on Minnesota’s staff and most recently served as its co-defensive coordinator.
“He’s an amazing defensive coordinator,” Hamilton continued. “He’s always with the guys and making connections and when it comes time to be on the field he’s always the leader, in control, and knows what he wants, he gives us the game plan to do it and lets us work how we work.”
Rutgers also named Marquise Watson its newest defensive line coach in January, marking his second stint in Piscataway as he previously coached the Scarlet Knights in 2018 as a defensive assistant.
“He just loves being with the guys and loves making connections,” Hamilton said. “One of his biggest goals is just having everybody bond over spring ball and going into summer.”
Coming out of Georgetown Prep where he played quarterback and linebacker, Hamilton feels his “welcome to college football” moment came in the team’s 2021 season-opener against Temple.
“I would say first play when I was on the kickoff return and I had a huge hit and I was like ‘that’s the exact way I want to enter college football,’” he explained. “That was a wakeup for me.”
The District Heights, Maryland native also believes having his first case of spring football will only help with his preparedness for training camp in the summer and when the season kicks off in September.
“This definitely helps with development and knowing what to do better before going into a season,” he said. “This will definitely help with the development part of me going into actual football games next season and us knowing the playbook better and getting used to playing more college football.”
Despite playing on the defensive line, Hamilton is looking to shed some weight in order to give himself and the team more flexibility once the season starts.
“Right now I’m around 274 pounds,” he said. “I’m going to go down a little bit so I’m just probably going to go down a couple of pounds and be a little bit lighter and quicker on my feet.”
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