BREAKING: Notre Dame CB Nick Watkins Transferring
Notre Dame's cornerbacks had an impressive spring, but they will be without Nick Watkins moving forward.
The DeSoto (Texas) native will utilize the graduate transfer rule and play his fifth and final season elsewhere.
Watkins' former head coach at Bishop Dunne High School, Michael Johnson, explained that it was more of a business decision than anything.
“At the end of the day, it’s about opportunity," Johnson told ISD. He has a ton of interest from a whole lot schools, you wouldn’t believe, so just the opportunity to be able to finish out his year strong and be able to go play.
“He has aspirations of playing at the next level. He understands they have two guys that they’re going to have moving forward and not wanting to sit behind them. His senior year, he wants to be able to finish it out playing somewhere. That’s the bottom line of why he wants to do it.”
With Julian Love and Troy Pride having passed him on the depth chart at corner, Pride started to take more reps last fall as Watkins battled tendonitis and if Watkins wasn't Notre Dame's most impressive cornerback this spring, it was Pride.
Watkins didn't feel like he could deny himself the opportunity to get on the field as he tries to impress NFL scouts in his final collegiate season.
Johnson noted that Watkins put up some good numbers in recent combine-style testing.
“He ran a 4.5 in the 40, 6.7 in the L drill," the coach said. "If everything clicks for him, he’ll be a guy who the NFL scouts will love. I think he sees that and just wants to make sure he puts himself in the best position to be able to play at the next level.”
Watkins has already received interest from schools in the Big 12 and ACC among others, according to Johnson.
Still, the decision comes as somewhat of a surprise as Watkins was asked about his decision to return to Notre Dame a few weeks ago.
“It was pretty much looking myself in the mirror and knowing I could be a better player,” explained Watkins. “Having another season under my belt that was taken away from the broken arm would help me get to my end goal of the NFL.
“If I didn’t come back, I would have probably been a grad transfer. I wanted to come back for my guys. This is the place where it all started. I feel like we can win a National Championship here.”
Watkins appeared in 15 games for the Irish over his career and recorded 34 tackles and one interception.
Notre Dame's cornerback room will return Pride, Love, Shaun Crawford, Donte Vaughn, while incoming freshmen Noah Boykin, Tariq Bracy, DJ Brown and Joe Wilkins Jr. arrive in June.