Newsstand: Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts earns national honors for performance vs. USC
Xavier Watts has been nothing short of sensational during his Notre Dame career, which has included back-to-back seasons of strong performances against the USC Trojans.
Last October against Lincoln Riley‘s team, Watts had seven tackles, 1 force fumble, two interceptions and 3 passes defended in a blowout win for the Irish. And this past weekend, the star safety posted 9 stops, 2 passes defensed and a interception returned for a 100-yard touchdown in a 49-35 triumph.
And for that performance, the Reese’s Senior Bowl named him the nation’s Defensive Player of the Week.
Watts ranks third in the nation in total interceptions (5), fifth in the nation in interceptions per game (0.4) and 12th in the country in passes defended (1.2 per game).
He is tied for the lead among all FBS safeties in total interceptions and passes defended per game, and tied for second among all FBS safeties in interceptions per game.
Notre Dame leads the nation in turnovers with 28. Watts is responsible for six of those turnovers (five interceptions, one fumble recovery). Watts now has 12-career interceptions, the most by a Notre Dame player since 1996.
Notre Dame tweets of the day
Quote of the day
“I have to see on tape. It obviously turned over so quickly because we had the ball back right away, needed to go down and score again. We checked into a play, we tried to be aggressive all night. Jayden [Maiava] gave our guys chances to make a lot of one-on-one plays. Yeah, it looked like we weren’t quite on the same page, and the corner got his eyes back and made a nice play on the ball.”
— USC head coach Lincoln Riley on Notre Dame corner Christian Gray’s pick six
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