Notre Dame’s Watts and Stanford’s Ayomanor National Award Winners
The game brought in 3.3 million viewers and allowed for an onslaught of new viewership. It was ESPN’s biggest audience for a Friday game since 2018.
Earl Heath
Contributing Sports Writer
Stanford Cardinal wide receiver Elic Ayomanor and Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts. Were named Walter Camp Offensive and Defensive National Players of The week for the week ending October 14 2023.
Ayomanor had 13 catches for 294 yards a single game record and three touchdowns in a 46-43 double overtime win over Colorado.
The BUFFS (4-3,) had a 29-0at halftime deficit to making it the largest comeback in program history.
Before the game the redshirt freshman never totaled more than four catches in a single game or had gone over 100 yards.
“I don’t think anything was different, it’s just like a lot of things aligned and I ended up getting my opportunities and I capitalized on the opportunities that I got,” Ayomanor said post-game. “I will say though that I had been wearing my brace for the majority of this season and I was not wearing my brace this game so I felt a little bit smoother for sure.”
The game brought in 3.3 million viewers and allowed for an onslaught of new viewership. It was ESPN’s biggest audience for a Friday game since 2018.
“I don’t think anything was different, it’s just like a lot of things aligned and I ended up getting my opportunities and I capitalized on the opportunities that I got,” Ayomanor said. “I will say though that I had been wearing my brace for the majority of this season and I was not wearing my brace this game so I felt a little bit smoother for sure.”
It was the first PAC-12 win for the Cardinal (2-4,1-3 PAC) this season.
On the defensive side Watts had seven tackles, two interceptions a forced fumble and fumble returned for a touchdown in Notre Dame’ s 48-20 win over USC.
“(The interception) definitely boosted us,” Watts said. “(It) 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.”
The Irish (6-2) needed this after a tough loss to Louisville last week.
Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts (0) was named Walter Camp Defensive National Players of The Week. (Photo: Irish Breakdown on FanNation)
“It’s kind of difficult to say what our full potential will look like because we don’t know what the future holds,” Watts added. “We don’t know how good we can be. We have to continue working at it, so at the end of the season we can really say, alright, this is the team we are, what we were. Just coming in every day and continue to work, work, work. Not thinking too much about the future or what this team can be. Just working on one day at a time.”
Walter Camp, “The Father of American football,” first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation (www.waltercamp.org) – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp.
