UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 14, 2023

Xavier Watts

Press Conference

Notre Dame 48, USC 20

Q. What got into you tonight?

XAVIER WATTS: I mean, I don't know. Obviously came off the loss from Louisville, so just kind of angry from that. I mean, big rivalry game. Just wanted to come out and dominate and play as best you can. Just ended up going good I guess.

Q. I know it's probably hard to pick a particular play, but all the plays you made tonight, picks, fumble recovery, the forced fumble, which one sticks in with you?

XAVIER WATTS: All of them are great. Like I said earlier, none of that happened without my teammates, the pressure they brought, coverage downfield. So I would say they helped me out.

If I had to pick one, probably the fumble that Cam stripped. Thank you to him. Then obviously scored off it, so that one was pretty cool.

Q. Xavier, seems like forever we're asking you about do you really want to be a safety and not a wide receiver. When Coach O'Leary and Coach Freeman believed that you had a future on this side of the ball, is this what you envisioned?

XAVIER WATTS: Not really. I mean, I was kind of just going along with the flow. Just kind of just came every day just tried to work and get better at my craft every day, be the best player I could be.

I didn't really think about anything this big or how anything would go. Just kind of playing it by ear, just going along, and ended up going well I guess.

Q. Not been many more successful game plans against Caleb Williams, whether at USC at Oklahoma. When did you during the week sense that the pass rush, everything else, the coverage, was coming together as a plan?

XAVIER WATTS: I mean, I don't have like a specific day or anything. Maybe like Friday when everything came together. We start walking through. All through the week we work really hard. Everything gets tightened up throughout the week. You could see all week that we were practicing really hard, doing all the details right. Friday just all came together and ended up showing it tonight.

Q. Getting that first pick on the first drive, what did that do for the confidence of the defense as a whole and yours individually?

XAVIER WATTS: Yeah, definitely boosted us. Gave us momentum. We needed some juice. We got some juice. The crowd was live. Defense obviously helped. Got the offense going as well. Just gave us a good boost that we needed to go for the rest of the game.

Q. When you got that strip at the end of the game, you're celebrating, crowd is celebrating, what's going through your mind after that?

XAVIER WATTS: Just I mean, just crazy. Just something you never really imagine. I was just out there playing, just trying to have fun, do my job, and things ended up happening. Just crazy.

Q. Marcus was up here and talked about I think on Monday his message was you needs Notre Dame to be an anti-fragile program. What does that mean to you as a player, and how does a team become that?

XAVIER WATTS: I mean, like I said, coach has talked about it all week, so just that message he installed in us, just coming back, bouncing back from the loss from Louisville and just coming back and facing adversity is what it means to me. Just move past the past and just get ready for the future and just take the next step and become the best team you can possibly be.

Q. You've had eight games in eight weeks; 66% of your season is already over. You have four games coming up, four guaranteed opportunities. From a media perspective we're all pretty tired from having all these games for eight weeks. Mentally, physically I understand one rep at a time, one game, one life, win the interval, but how have you and your teammates been able to overcome the adversity of everything that's been in front of you in eight games in eight weeks?

XAVIER WATTS: Just don't take the opportunity for granted. Like you said, we only get, what is it, 12, 13 games guaranteed, so just come in every day and just kind of go with it. We're not looking for the future or the past, just one game at a time.

And then obviously coming up on this break it's going to be nice. Like you said, we played eight games in a row and nice to have a little break.

Q. What's been the biggest challenge for you personally to have so much occur in the last eight weeks without a break?

XAVIER WATTS: Probably I say myself personally my body. I feel like I've played a lot. A little sore everywhere, achy. This bye week is helping me recover and like I can just take care of my body.