Xavier Watts Comes Up Big In Notre Dame Win Over Southern Cal
Turnovers can be hard to come by. Notre Dame found that out last year when it took until the fourth game of the season for the Irish to force their first turnover.
Saturday’s game felt like it should have been one where turnovers should have been hard to come by. Southern Cal quarterback Caleb Williams had thrown just 10 interceptions in his career entering the game against Notre Dame.
Williams threw an interception just once every 87.7 attempts entering the game, but it took until just his second attempt of the night for Irish safety Xavier Watts to intercept the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
“(The interception) definitely boosted us,” Watts said after Notre Dame’s 48-20 victory. “(It) gave us momentum. We needed some juice. We got some juice. The crowd was live. Defense obviously helped. Got the offense going as well. Just gave us a good boost that we needed to go for the rest of the game.”
Watts was playing centerfield and made the play thanks to pressure from Irish defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste. The 38-yard return down the sideline gave the Notre Dame offense a short field and allowed Sam Hartman to hit Gi’Bran Payne with an all too easy four-yard touchdown pass in a game the Irish never trailed.
“You could see all week that we were practicing really hard,” Watts recalled of the preparation that went into Saturday night’s success. “(We were) doing all the details right.”
Watts intercepted Williams again later in the half. Benjamin Morrison did, too. Both set up short touchdown runs by Audric Estime. Three interceptions in one half against a quarterback who had thrown just one all season and who had gone nearly two calendar years without throwing more than one in a single game.
It wasn’t just a great defensive performance. It was a great defensive performance when the Irish needed it most. It came at the end of an unprecedented fourth consecutive prime time game against a fourth consecutive ranked and unbeaten opponent, let alone against Notre Dame’s archrival.
“I like playing at night,” Watts said of the prime time slot. “Everybody has different opinions about it. I think everybody is just playing a football game. Where, what time it is, doesn’t really matter.
“It’s a great opportunity to be able to play four in a row, I would say,” Watts continued. “I think it’s a blessing to be able to do that. Not a lot of other schools or programs are able to play primetime games four weeks in a row.”
Watts put on the performance of a lifetime under the Notre Dame Stadium lights Saturday night. After being stopped short of the end zone on his two first-half interceptions, he would not be denied again after he recovered a fumble that Cam Hart stripped away from USC receiver Mario Williams.
“Just crazy,” Watts said of scoring the touchdown. “Just something you never really imagine. I was just out there playing, just trying to have fun, do my job.”
The touchdown put the exclamation point on the 48-20 final score. Notre Dame is now two-thirds of the way through its schedule. The Irish have the first of two bye weeks will allow Watts and his teammates some much needed rest.
“I say myself personally my body,” Watts said of the biggest challenge of playing eight consecutive games. “I feel like I've played a lot. A little sore everywhere, achy. This bye week is helping me recover and I can just take care of my body.
There is still much to be accomplished for the Irish in their final four games of the season.
“It’s kind of difficult to say what our full potential will look like because we don’t know what the future holds,” Watts remarked. “We don’t know how good we can be. We have to continue working at it, so at the end of the season we can really say, alright, this is the team we are, what we were. Just coming in every day and continue to work, work, work. Not thinking too much about the future or what this team can be. Just working on one day at a time.”
The Irish won’t play again until Oct. 28 when Pittsburgh, who beat Louisville on Saturday, visits Notre Dame Stadium. That game will be followed by a trip to Clemson, who started the season ranked and now sits just outside the top 25. After another bye the week of Nov. 11, the Irish close their home schedule when they host Wake Forest on Nov. 18 and then close the regular season at Stanford on Nov. 25.
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