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Marcus Hamilton has evolved into one of the best corners in the Cavaliers’ history. |
Marcus Hamilton came to Virginia amidst a lot of hype. Part of Virginia’s best recruiting class ever, Hamilton was given five stars by Max Emfinger and Rivals.com ranked the Centreville native as the nation’s 11th-best cornerback. He redshirted as a freshman, in large part due to an injury, and was a reserve defensive back in 2003. From there, Hamilton has steadily developed into of the ACC’s best corners.
After the 2003 season, he made major strides that offseason and was a co-recipient of the Rock Weir Award, given to the most improved player in spring practice. His improvement earned him a starting job in 2004 and Hamilton looked ready to live up to the hype after an 11-tackle effort against Syracuse. Three games later, however, Hamilton found himself on the bench after losing his job to true freshman Philip Brown .
For some players, that might have been it. But the 5-foot-11, 192-pounder refused to stop working. He earned his orange jersey back in his third game as a reserve, garnering National Defensive Player of the Week honors after picking off two passes in the end zone in a huge road win at Georgia Tech. Hamilton has let go since and continued to work, blossoming into an All-American candidate as he enters his final season at Virginia.
“I just had to prepare each game as if I was going in to be a starter, so when I got my opportunity to go back in there, I felt like I made the best of it and haven’t looked back since,” he said at Meet the Team Day, with his newly-styled mohawk atop his head. “People think you’re an All-American in high school and as soon as you get to college, you’re going to have the same kind of results. Some people might, but not everybody.”
The results started to pour in last season, as Hamilton earned second-team All-ACC honors after leading the conference in interceptions and finishing fourth among cornerbacks in tackles. Hamilton really made a name for himself nationally, however, when he shut down All-American wide receiver Calvin Johnson, limiting him to just four catches. That performance pushed Hamilton into the elite – entering the 2006 season, he sits on the Lott Trophy and Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch lists and he has been named a preseason All-American in some publications, a huge transformation from the player who was benched in 2004.
Hamilton has led the team in interceptions for two straight seasons (4 in 2004, 6 in 2005). If he matches his 2005 total, Hamilton will be tied with Pat Chester for the school’s all-time record with 16 career interceptions. Keith McMeans own the record with 17.
“When I was here before, Marcus was a good player and a great young man, but one of the issues may have been a little bit more physical play from him,” said defensive coordinator Mike London, who was on staff in 2004 but spent the 2005 season with the Houston Texans. “Having been gone a year and come back and having been around him now and witnessed a couple practices, he’s become more of a physical player and more of a confident player. He’s stepped his game up tremendously and I think that his best football is still ahead of him because he really understands how to be a defensive back. … I’ve been very impressed with him and the way he’s approached his final season.”
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Marcus Hamilton has led UVa in interceptions for two straight seasons. If he matches 2005’s six picks, he’ll be tied for second in school history with Pat Chester. |
As one of just two senior starters on a very young defense (and the only one until Tony Franklin was recently reinstated), Hamilton has taken an extremely active leadership role. A relentless worker, Hamilton delved into film study this summer – and forced the younger secondary players to come with him.
“I just tried to watch as much tape as I could during the summer,” he said. “There’s not as much of a workload as during the school year, so if I could get a little done ahead of time, it would be helpful. As for bringing the young guys along, they don’t know as much about watching film or how to watch film, so it will help them advance their progress a lot faster rather than having learned it themselves.”
Leadership like that led his teammates to vote him captain for this upcoming season. Hamilton is a guy that is always trying to help everyone else get better. In a secondary where a lot of younger players are competing for the cornerback spot opposite of him, Hamilton is the one to whom everyone looks.
“He’s become a guy that has instilled a work ethic and attitude in the players, and the young guys especially, because he’s been down that road before,” London said. “He’s been in a position where people thought, he wasn’t this, he wasn’t that, but over the course of the years here, he’s made himself into a pretty good player. He’s speaking from a position of I’ve been there, done that from a talent level and also from what was the perception about him.”
Hamilton’s leadership has been vital given the lack of stability at secondary coach in recent years. New coach Steve Bernstein is the third position coach in three years, following Bob Price and Al Golden. While Hamilton says the main schemes have been the same, he is the guy that answers all of the questions.
“If any of the young guys that don’t understand something one way, I can try to explain it in a different perspective with different terminology that they might understand,” he said. “I’m trying to help the guys out where I can and try to lead them and show them what things need to be done.”
This has been a huge boon for Bernstein. He can focus much of his attention on the other parts of the secondary with Hamilton firmly entrenched at cornerback, typically on the left side but subject to change based on personnel match-ups.
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“It’s been great having him,” UVa coach Al Groh said. “He’s a real example of a player who has matured both competitively and personally during his time here. It certainly makes Steve’s job a little bit easier because except for minimal direction, a lot of times he’s only got to coach three instead of four. … It takes 25 percent of his diligence and [lets him] apply it somewhere else.”
Hamilton’s focus is not just on the football field but throughout his life. Hamilton actually graduated early from the University, earning his degree in sociology in three and a half years with a 3.36 GPA. He took summer school and is currently taking graduate classes, for which he is able to take fewer hours than when he was an undergrad. He considers his education “very important” and, as a result, has twice made the All-ACC Academic Team.
Hamilton is also already looking for his post-football career, though he will likely get a chance to play on Sundays next fall. He is extremely interested in broadcasting and spent time this summer working as an intern for Wes McElroy at the ESPN radio station in Charlottesville.
“Wes was teaching me a lot of stuff and I wanted to learn the ins and outs of the business,” Hamilton said. “They didn’t offer [broadcasting] at the University of Virginia, so any way I can get my foot in door and learn as much as I can, that’s what I tried to do.”
That attitude is quintessential Hamilton, and is a perfect example of why he has grown into a player that ESPN ranks as the nation’s eighth-best cornerback. He’s always learning and always trying to get better. Plus, he is just as eager to help his teammates get better. Hamilton was not one of the highest regarded recruits of his 2000 class, but he is the one who will leave Virginia with the biggest legacy, bouncing back from a mid-career benching to become one of the better cornerbacks in school history.
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