Newsstand: Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts named semifinalist for two major awards
The award semifinalist honors keep rolling in for Notre Dame graduate safety Xavier Watts. The Lott IMPACT Trophy and the Bednarik Award both named Watts a semifinalist on Tuesday.
The Lott IMPACT Trophy and the Bednarik Award are two of the three honors given to the nation’s best defensive player, with the former placing an emphasis on character as well. The third is the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which Watts won in 2023.
Watts has intercepted 10 passes over the past two seasons and grades as one of the best man-coverage safeties in college football. On Saturday against Florida State, Watts also made a key tackle inside the 5-yard line to stymie the Seminoles’ lone threat to reach the end zone.
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Watts will play his final regular-season home game with the Irish at 3:30 p.m ET on Saturday against Virginia.
Notre Dame tweets of the day
Moving up…
Luke Talich, to the house:
Add one to the list of academic and community honors for Jack Kiser.
Quote of the day
“Who’d have thunk it? I mean, what a great job. I think a couple things: So, I think all of us felt like we had a very talented, young, inexperienced group that was going to continue to mature and grow together as the season went along. And what they’ve done collectively with how they’ve worked at it and how they’ve continued to get better, what [offensive line] coach [Joe] Rudolph has done from a coaching standpoint to put those guys in position and help them, it’s a tribute to them and a tribute, obviously, to what he’s doing with them in the meeting room and on the practice field.”
— Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock on the Irish offensive line being named one of 10 semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award
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