During his playing days with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Xavier Watts was one of the best safeties in the game. Now he's looking to earn that same title in the NFL. So far, so good on that note, as Watts was named the Week 1 starter for the Atlanta Falcons.
On Thursday, Falcons' head coach Raheem Morris announced two secondary starters. Watts is getting the nod on his side of the field at strong safety. It's the culmination of hard work for the former Omaha product, who showed that he can tackle and is a ball hawk with the Irish.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish star will start the next part of his career next Sunday when the Atlanta Falcons take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at noon.
More Notre Dame Fighting Irish news
- Earlier this year, Fox analyst Joel Klatt laid out who he thinks Notre Dame will face off against in the first round of the playoffs. He believes that LSU would be a fascinating game since it would feature Brian Kelly vs. the man who replaced him in South Bend, Marcus Freeman.
- Former Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman officially has a second lease on his NFL life. The Washington Commanders waived him but quickly re-signed him to their practice squad.
- The Notre Dame football team is locking down some very big visits this fall. There are few that are bigger than 4-star offensive lineman Will Slagle. While the prospect seems to be leaning towards the Iowa Hawkeyes, there is some hope that he'll come to South Bend when they play USC and realizes he's home.
- The Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's volleyball team opened its first match of the season with a hard-fought, five-set match against Santa Clara. Down 14-10 and facing match point in the fifth set, the Irish refused to surrender, going on a 4-0 run capped by an Anna Bjork kill to knot it up at 14-all. A Broncos kill put Santa Clara back up 15-14, but that’s when Morgan Gaerte sandwiched two kills in between a Broncos attack error to give the Irish the 17-15 win in the fifth set to secure the match.