{"id":77102,"date":"2024-12-03T05:19:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/newsstand-notre-dame-safety-xavier-watts-earns-national-honors-for-performance-vs-usc\/"},"modified":"2024-12-03T05:19:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T11:19:00","slug":"newsstand-notre-dame-safety-xavier-watts-earns-national-honors-for-performance-vs-usc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/newsstand-notre-dame-safety-xavier-watts-earns-national-honors-for-performance-vs-usc\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsstand: Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts earns national honors for performance vs. USC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Xavier Watts<\/a><\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

Last October against Lincoln Riley<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s 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.<\/p>\n

And for that performance, the Reese\u2019s Senior Bowl named him the nation\u2019s Defensive Player of the Week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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).\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Notre Dame tweets of the day<\/h2>\n
\n\n

eXcellence <\/p>\n

Xavier Watts has been named @seniorbowl<\/a> Defensive Player of the Week #GoIrish<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/GYwYW4qDhe<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

\n\n

\ud835\udc0f\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc32\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc1f\ud835\udc1f \ud835\udc01\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc1d!<\/p>\n

Christian Gray\u2019s 99-yard pick six helps seal Notre Dame\u2019s 49-35 win at USC, clinching a College Football Playoff berth <\/p>\n

Order your copy here: https:\/\/t.co\/JHyomeEGn3<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/JdHmMfRWhE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 BlueandGold.com (@BGInews) December 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

\n\n

\ud835\udc05\ud835\udc0b\ud835\udc08\ud835\udc0f! Erik Schmidt, one of the nation’s best kickers in the 2025 class, has flipped his commitment from Wisconsin to Notre Dame <\/p>\n

Story: https:\/\/t.co\/aJtMSWpVtz<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/ZcN2IHOFQ2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Singer (@MikeTSinger) December 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Quote of the day<\/h2>\n

\u201cI 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.\u00a0Jayden [Maiava]<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0gave our guys chances to make a lot of one-on-one plays. Yeah, it looked like we weren\u2019t quite on the same page, and the corner got his eyes back and made a nice play on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 USC head coach Lincoln Riley on Notre Dame corner Christian Gray\u2019s pick six<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Headlines of the day<\/h2>\n

\u2018Give Him His Flowers\u2019 Notre Dame Football Player of the Week: Jadarian Price<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Playoffs, the ACC, and independence make for a perfect Irish trifecta<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Gold Standard: Notre Dame recruiting intel two days before National Signing Day<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

ND football flips kicker Erik Schmidt from Wisconsin<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Notre Dame football full-season snap counts, participation chart: Defense<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Notre Dame football full-season snap counts, participation chart: Offense<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Newsstand: Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts earns national honors for performance vs. USC<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Xavier Watts has been nothing short of sensational during his Notre Dame career, which has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}