Xavier Watts Earns Sporting News All-American Honors

Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts earned first-team All-America honors from Sporting News

Notre Dame senior safety Xavier Watts has been named a first-team All-American by Sporting News as his postseason honors continue to pile up.

Watts has now been named a first-team All-America by Walter Camp, the Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, CBS Sports, USA TODAY Sports and The Athletic. Watts also won the Bronko Nagurski Award, which goes to the best defensive player in the country.

Sporting News is one of the five All-American teams that determines consensus and unanimous All-Americans. Watts already qualified for consensus All-American honors, but with Sporting News also putting him on the first-team he is now one All-American honor away from being a unanimous All-American. The American Football Coaches of America is the one remaining All-American teams.

After spending the previous season as a rotation player at safety, Watts became a breakout star for Notre Dame in 2023, racking 47 tackles this season, and he added 2.5 tackles for loss and four pass breakups.

Where he made his biggest impact was forcing turnovers, with the Nebraska native leading the nation with seven interceptions, and he also returned a fumble for a touchdown. In fact, all eight of his turnovers ended with scores, either directly from him or from the Irish offense.

Five of his interceptions resulted in an immediate touchdown from the Notre Dame offense on the ensuing drive, and two more resulted in field goals for the Irish.

Watts had his national breakout performance against USC when he intercepted reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams twice, setting up touchdowns on both plays. He ended the scoring in that game with a touchdown of his own as he returned a fumble for a touchdown in the 48-20 win.

Watts announced last week that he plans to play in Notre Dame's Sun Bowl matchup against Oregon State.

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