Notre Dame football: Joe Alt, Xavier Watts named unanimous All-Americans
Thousands and thousands of people have earned the distinction of “Notre Dame football player” over the last century-plus. Entering Thursday, only 30 of them have held the title of unanimous All-American.
Add two more to the list.
Junior left tackle Joe Alt and senior safety Xavier Watts became the 35th and 36th unanimous All-American selections in Notre Dame history with their appearances on the American Football Coaches Association First Team today. Those 36 unanimous All-American honors are spread across 32 honorees; Frank Carideo (1929-30), Johnny Lujack (1946-47), Johnny Lattner (1952-53) and Ross Browner (1976-77) were two-time unanimous All-Americans.
This is the first time Notre Dame has had multiple unanimous All-Americans in the same season since Raghib Ismail, Michael Stonebreaker and Chris Zorich in 1990.
Alt and Watts were also selected to the First Team by the four other accredited outlets — the Walter Camp Football Foundation, The Associated Press, the Football Writers Association of America and The Sporting News — that make up consensus and All-American status.
To be a consensus All-American, a player must make the First Team of three of the five organizations. Alt and Watts are the 109th and 110th consensus All-Americans in Notre Dame history. To be an unanimous All-American, a player must make the First Team of all five entities. The Fighting Irish have had more unanimous All-America selections than every program in the country other than Alabama and Ohio State.
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Alt declared for the 2024 NFL Draft on Wednesday. He has the potential to be a top 10 overall pick. He was a finalist for the Lombardi Award and the Outland Trophy, two of the premier individual honors given to college football linemen every year. He did not win either award — they both went to defensive players — but he was the only player who was a finalist for both.
Watts, meanwhile, won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the nation’s most outstanding defensive player as chosen by the FWAA. He led the country with 7 interceptions. He said earlier in December that he will play in Notre Dame’s Dec. 29 Sun Bowl appearance vs. Oregon State, but he is undecided on whether or not he will return to the Irish defense in 2024. He would be a fifth-year graduate student.
Watts became the third Notre Dame defensive player to be named a unanimous All-American since Manti Te’o in 2012, joining Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah in that regard. Prior to Alt, the last Irish offensive player to join the exclusive club was fellow offensive lineman Quenton Nelson in 2017.
