Xavier Watts officially in the running to repeat as Bronko Nagurski winner

While Notre Dame football is waiting for fall camp to start, several Fighting Irish players are also finding what kind of awards they might win should they have a very good season. One Monday, Riley Leonard found out he was the only Notre Dame rep on the Maxwell Award Watch List.

Tuesday morning, we moved from the best offensive player in the country to the best defensive player in the nation. The Bronco Naguski Award Watch List was released on Tuesday and it should come as no surprise that Xavier Watts was among the candidates.

Now that he’s officially on the list, he’s not just a candidate but the reigning champ. That of course has no impact on whether or not he’ll win it this season. He’ll need to put up another insanely good campaign for Notre Dame football. But there will be at least talk about the potential of him winning it in back to back seasons.

Xavier Watts looking to repeat as Nagurski Award winner

Of course, in order to win, he’s going to have to beat out one of his teammates. Howard Cross III is the other Fighting Irish star that was named to the watch list.

That’s going to be quite the competition considering that there is no doubt that the players are two of the best in the country. 

Among Nagurski candidates that the Irish will face off against is USC’s Bear Alexander, Florida State’s Joshua Farmer, and Shemar Turner from Texas A&M.

In all, it appears that the Notre Dame football team is going to have it rather easy when it comes to having to take on the best defenders in the college football world. There are a few on the list, but there’s almost as many on the Irish defense as the entirety of their opponents.