Pitt safety Damar Hamlin battling through training camp injury, likely out for Villanova game

Pitt true freshman Damar Hamlin is expected to contribute heavily at cornerback for the program this year. But according to head coach Pat Narduzzi, the star recruit is battling through an undisclosed injury during camp.

Narduzzi calls it minor, but also says he isn't likely to be ready for Pitt's opener. In fact, he isn't even sure if Hamlin will be ready to play this year.

"Well right now he's dealing with a minor thing that we just can't get right. We actually brought in a specialist to look at him. We saw enough early to know he can help us, but we've got to get him back on the field. He probably is not going to help us in the opener. Is he going to help us during the season? We're going to work on that."

Missing one game would be one thing. But if Hamlin is potentially out of the mix this season, that's quite another.

Not having Hamlin as an option really puts more pressure on the corners the team has since there's one fewer option available. But it also hurts in the sense that he won't go into next year with the year of experience you'd like him to have. While he'll be around the team for a year, he'd still be a rookie next year if somehow he doesn't play.

It's hard to get a good sense of where he stands, obviously. Narduzzi calling it a minor injury sort of conflicts with the rest of his statement that he doesn't even know if he can help them the entire season. If there are questions about that and if he's seeing specialists, I mean, I don't know. Can that technically be called minor?

Here's to hoping he can get back onto the field this year - it would benefit both the team and himself.

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