Pickerington's Ty Hamilton ready for breakout season at Ohio State
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Making a name for yourself on Ohio State's football team is hard enough. It's even more challenging when you're a defensive lineman compared with your older brother who's in the NFL.
That's the case for Ohio State senior and Pickerington Central graduate Ty Hamilton, the younger brother of former Buckeye and Jacksonville Jaguar DaVon Hamilton.
"I feel like all of us have that little growing step we had to go through," Hamilton said. "It's not easy all the time but … you can see the progress in every single day."
For the younger Hamilton, the biggest growth in his game has been confidence.
"I'm the older guy now, so you have to step inside that [leadership] role," Hamilton said. "It's just being able to have that confidence to be like, 'I can come out there and play, do anything, lead my squad.'"
Hamilton's confidence rose toward the end of the season when he started the final five games last year at nose tackle after only taking about a dozen snaps in blowout wins earlier in the year. This year, he'll be expected to take on an even bigger role, just like his brother did going into his fourth season, when his snap count jumped from double to triple digits.
"I mean everywhere," Hamilton said about where his game has improved. "Being able to play off the ball, being faster, quicker everything like that, especially off the field like school. It's just automatically progress."
'Cold-blooded gentleman'
That's how defensive coordinator Jim Knowles described Hamilton last season after his first two career starts. Hamilton's a man of few words but his play and 6-foot-3, 295-pound stature speak for themselves.
"I thought Ty had a great year. He came in and really won the position and he continued to play better down the stretch so I think great things of him," defensive line coach Larry Johnson said.
Although Ty wants to be his own person, the similarities between he and DaVon are uncanny. Both brothers played for Jay Sharrett at Pickerington Central, where they were overlooked high school prospects. DaVon was the 46th ranked player in Ohio and 63rd ranked defensive tackle in the country, per 247Sports. Ty was the 24th ranked player in the state and 33rd ranked side defensive end in the nation.
Neither Hamilton was considered a top 750 player in their respective senior classes. Even their path at OSU has been eerily similar. DaVon and Ty both redshirted their freshman season, followed by two seasons of limited playing time before taking on a larger role as juniors.
DaVon's senior season included 9.5 tackles for a loss and six sacks, which helped him become a third round pick in 2020. Now, Ty has a similar opportunity his senior year to show he's the next Hamilton who deserves to be in the NFL.