Graduate safety Xavier Watts and graduate defensive lineman Howard Cross III have both been named to the 2024 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List. Watts is the reigning winner of the 2023 Nagurski Trophy, as the award recognizes the national defensive player of the year in college football.
Notre Dame players have won the Nagurski Trophy twice in the award’s history, as linebacker Manti Te’o earned the honor in 2012.
A 2023 Unanimous All-American, Watts enters 2024 as one of the preeminent defensive backs in college football. In 2023, he tied for the national lead with seven interceptions, averaging an interception every other game.
Watts played and started in all 13 games during the season, finishing with 52 tackles, 30 solo, three tackles for loss and 0.5 sack, adding four pass breakups. He forced a fumble and recovered a fumble, returning it for a touchdown. Watts’ seven interceptions led to 33 total Notre Dame points on the subsequent drives.
Off his consecutive two-interception games vs. Pitt and USC, Watts was the first Notre Dame defender to pick off two passes in back-to-back games since at least 1996. He was one of three FBS players to achieve two multi-INT games in 2023, and the only to do so in consecutive games. He earned Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week honors for both of those performances in 2023.
Cross III earned Second Team All-America honors from FWAA, Walter Camp, the Associated Press and The Sporting News in 2023. He was a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award, starting all 13 games for Notre Dame. He piled up 66 stops in 2023, which ranked second among all Power 5 front-four defensive lineman.
In 2023, Cross III and Watts helped Notre Dame to become the nation’s top pass-efficiency defense (97.09), and the fifth-overall defense (276.3).
The FWAA All-America Committee, after voting input from the association’s full membership, selects a 26-man All-America Team and eventually the Nagurski Trophy finalists. The Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner will be chosen from the five finalists named in November. Committee members, by individual ballot, select the winner they regard as the best defensive player in college football.
The FWAA has chosen a National Defensive Player of the Year since 1993. In 1995, the FWAA named the award in honor of the legendary two-way player from the University of Minnesota. Nagurski dominated college football, then became a star for professional football’s Chicago Bears in the 1930s. Bronislaw “Bronko” Nagurski is a charter member of both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.