SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The question that Xavier Watts can’t answer and doesn’t need one from anyone else at this point is where is all this headed?
This being Watts becoming a two-way experiment for the fifth-ranked Notre Dame football team, now just a little more than a week and a half before it takes on the highest-ranked opponent that it has ever faced in a season opener, in No. 2 and host Ohio State on Sept. 3 (7:30 p.m. EDT; ABC-TV).
In the here and now, the 6-foot, 193-pound junior is a wide receiver/safety with zero career catches and 15 career tackles. And yet he possesses enough promise at both positions that he confutes those modest numbers and makes it plausible to imagine him as a starter at either one in 2023.
Meanwhile in 2022, he’s a wild card, a safety net and unselfish enough to risk his ascending status as a defensive back to bolster a duct-taped wide receiver corps.
“Coach (Marcus) Freeman asked me if I wanted to play both sides,” Watts said Monday after practice No. 15 of training camp and the last one before fall-semester classes started Tuesday morning.
“And of course, I’m not going to turn that down. That’s a great opportunity to help the team, especially wide receivers. I just wanted to step out of my comfort zone.
“You come to Notre Dame to take on challenges. I feel like trying both sides of the ball is a challenge. And not a lot of people have the opportunity.”
Freeman actually had the conversation with Watts in the warmup/stretching line leading into a practice, shortly after sixth-year grad slot receiver Avery Davis suffered his second season-ending ACL tear in nine months on Aug. 13.
That left the Irish with seven scholarship receivers, with 16 career starts among them and 14 of those belonging to grad senior Braden Lenzy. Three of the seven are coming back from injuries — grad senior Joe Wilkins Jr. (foot fracture), sophomore Deion Colzie (knee) and Jayden Thomas (mild hamstring pull).
Monday, for the first time since training camp opened on Aug. 5, all three of them were fully engaged in practice, though Colzie is still wearing a bulky knee brace.
Davis looked on, as a quasi-coach, with running back Logan Diggs now wearing his No. 3 jersey. Watts, meanwhile, continues to look the part in wide receiver drills, even though his last run of practices at the position was during week 1 of last season.
“Didn’t force me into anything,” Watts said of Freeman’s invitation for double duty. “Just told me the choice was mine, and if I wanted to play both ways, I could. Then I talked to (offensive coordinator Tommy) Rees and coach Freeman again, and they were both open to it. (Safeties) coach (Chris) O’Leary was as well. Again, I just wanted to challenge myself, because I feel like I have a unique skill set and I’ll be able to do both and capitalize on both.”
Watts came to Notre Dame as an early enrollee in the 2020 class and one of three freshman wideouts in a group that also included Jay Brunelle and five-star prospect Jordan Johnson.
Watts and Johnson each played in two games and Brunelle zero in the fall of 2020. Johnson (UCF) and Brunelle (Yale) transferred after the season.
The next reception among them will be the first.
Watts, though, moved to defense — rover specifically — after Notre Dame’s season-opening win at Florida State in 2021, when a run of season-ending injuries at the linebacker/rover positions (Marist Liufau, Paul Moala, Shayne Simon) prompted the move.
Five weeks later, during ND’s bye week, Watts shifted to safety and began ascending at that position, particularly against the run. Injured All-America safety Kyle Hamilton took Watts under his wing and helped tutor him personally.
This past spring, with Notre Dame’s wide receivers numbers down, Freeman gave Watts a chance to switch back to his original position full time. He declined.
“He’s a safety, man,” safeties coach O’Leary said Monday with a smile. “He is in a really good place at safety. He took an unbelievable step coming out of summer and fall, 10 practices or whatever.
“He had probably shown the most growth (at the position group). So, he hasn't lost that. Now we’ve just got to share him a little bit. We've got to make sure that the team’s in the best position to win. But when we get the opportunity to rep him and get him out there, we’re going to get him out there.”
So far Watts has spent half of his handful of practices as a two-position player playing solely wide receiver and the other half bouncing back and forth between positions.
“I feel like it’s going to balance out way more once I knock off the rust,” he said. “At wideout, I’m like learning the plays more consistently.
“It’s not too crazy. Coach Rees is still the offensive coordinator. Still the same plays. I still have a good understanding of all the plays. Obviously, he helps me. Like we go over the plays every day in practice. So, it’s just simple learning like that.”
He also trying learn what might be the best uniform combination. He wore 26 at practice on Monday, the same number he’s been wearing most of training camp, but he’s listed on the ND roster as No. 4 and a safety.
Watts admitted he didn’t like 26, but No. 4 on offense is taken by sophomore Lorenzo Styles. A single-digit number would be his preference.
“Everybody wants to look good on the field, you know,” Watts said. “Look good, feel good, play good. Usually single-digit numbers are like really good-looking numbers. Especially skill positions.
“(But) it definitely is way more important to get on the field. (The uniform number) is not that big of a deal.”
Watts said his preference of the two positions is safety, but said if Xavier Watts the receiver was being covered by Xavier Watts the safety on a 50-50 ball, Xavier Watts the receiver would win that battle.
“I’m having a good time,” he said, while not trying to look too far into the future. “Just step out and try to enjoy every day. Like Avery, I hate to bring it up, but Avery didn’t expect it. You never know when your time’s going to come to an end. So I just try to enjoy myself every day.
“I used to come here when I wasn’t playing and I was kind of down on myself or whatever. But as you start to mature, I want to take it day by day and enjoy it. Not take it for granted, because a lot of people don’t get this opportunity. Just have fun while I’m doing it at Notre Dame.”
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