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QB, 6’4, 200, 4.7
Pelham, AL
High School: Pelham
HS Number: 14
AL Number: 14
Official Visits: Alabama
Second Choice: Tennessee
Host During Alabama Visit: Adam Cox
Committed: September 9, 1997
Academic Status: Qualified
Stats
HS Junior Season
Passing
- 273 attempted
- 142 completed
- 52% completion ratio
- 13 TDs
Rushing
HS Senior Season
Passing
- 342 attempted
- 200 completed
- 58% completion ratio
- 2484 yards
- 20 TDs
Rushing
Career
Passing
- 1008 attempted
- 519 completed
- 51% completion ratio
- 6838 yards
- 55 TDs
Honors
- All-County
- Two-time All-State
- Tuscaloosa News Sweet 16
- Tuscaloosa News Preseason Sweet 16
- Super Seniors Team
- USA Today Honorable Mention All-American
- Pigskin Preps Super South 75
- Forrest Davis First Team All-South
- SuperPrep All-American
- Prep Star All-American
- AL-MS All-Star Game
What Makes Tyler Watts Special?
By Aaron James
It’s what separated Danny Wuerffel at Florida from other good college quarterbacks.
It’s what separated Peyton Manning at Tennessee, Ty Detmer at Brigham Young, Rob Johnson at Southern Cal.
It’s the ability to read defenses, to successfully audible, to know when to throw it away, to feel the rush without looking at it. In short, it is quarterback savvy. And by all accounts, Tyler Watts has it, too.
College football is filled with quarterbacks with all the height, size and arm strength pro scouts look for. What it’s not filled with are quarterbacks who combine that with a true gift for the position -- true knowledge of how to play it.
Watts, of Pelham, Alabama, signed with the University of Alabama last month as one of the Southeast’s most highly regarded quarterback prospects.
And while Watts does have the size and arm strength that scouts consider prerequisites, it is his ability to read defenses that may make him a special player at the next level.
Ask his peers, his coaches, his opponents, about Watts, and statistics are the last thing to come out of their mouths.
"He’s just got a way of finding the open guy, and you just don’t teach that," said Marico Portis, a fellow Alabama signee who got a first-hand look at Watts in the playoffs last year.
"We’d cover the field with 6, even 7 defensive backs sometimes, and he’d still find a way to get the pass off to the right guy. He flat out picked us apart."
Watts enters his college career with good timing for a young quarterback. No quarterback in front of him has significant experience, which should allow him the chance to see action early in his career -- perhaps even his freshman season.
But at a position where most incoming freshmen automatically redshirt and often wait 2-3 years to start, Watts likely won’t be afforded that luxury.
"Any player would want a chance to compete early, and I’m no different," Watts said.
"But at the same time, it would be nice to come in and have all the time I needed, learn the system behind an experienced guy. There are advantages to both, but in my situation, I’ll just have to be prepared more quickly."
Watts said he will enroll at UA for the second half of summer school, allowing him to begin the adjustment.
"As good as he is, he’s convinced he can be much better, so he’s looking to make lots of improvement," said Pelham coach Rick Rhodes.
"He’s a guy who is always going to be willing to learn more. Too many kids think they’re as good as they can be, but Tyler’s not one of them."
Asked which of Watts’ passes is the most memorable to him, Rhodes didn’t hesitate.
"He threw a 72-yard touchdown pass in the season opener of his junior year that sticks out in my mind," Rhodes said.
"It was classic Tyler. His first read wasn’t open, he stayed calm and found Brett Wallace on the other side of the field. I turned to one of my assistants and I said, ‘We’ve got a special quarterback.’ He’s made a lot of throws I’ll never forget, but that one sticks out to me."
Said Watts: "It was just a backside seam pass. The safety bit on another route, the defenses flooded the strongside, so I just found a backside guy that had beaten his man. He was my third read."
It’s that kind of savvy -- not the fact that Watts threw for 2,484 yards and 20 touchdowns in his final season -- that have Alabama fans excited about his potential.
Freddie Kitchens was recruited very heavily, and was named a high school All-American. So was John David Phillips. Neither was quite able to validate the high school hype they received, but Watts, Bama fans hope, will.
Even an Auburn signee -- Roderick Jones -- said Watts impressed him in the Pelham-Vigor playoff game.
"He was putting it on the money," Jones said. "I don’t think he can run as well as people say. Whenever he left the pocket, we pretty much were all over him. But as far as passing the ball, yeah, he beat us all night. He just finds the open guy no matter where he is."
Portis estimated that Watts audibled up to 90 percent of his team’s plays that night. Watts, however, said his audibling was actually less frequent his final year.
"I probably audibled too much as a sophomore and a junior, but later I learned that sometimes audibles are better left for certain situations," Watts said.
Watts was asked to describe his instincts for audibles.
"Every defense leaves a hole somewhere, and it’s just a question of predicting where it will be and delivering the ball there," he said.
"If there are 7, 8 men in the box, you throw it over them, get the ball into open space. If I come up and see blitzers who are coming up the middle, I like to audible to a 3-step drop, maybe throw a quick out or a screen or a fade. If it looks like the blitz is going to come around the ends, you just send the tailback right up the middle, or maybe hit the tight end with something quick. Recognition is the key, but I have a long, long way to go in every part of my game. I have to get much better."
Rhodes said Watts’ reads aren’t limited to pre-snap reads.
"He’ll go through five reads if he has to to find the open man," Rhodes said. "He’s willing to stand in the pocket and survey that field."
"We tried everything," added Portis. "We blitzed, we faked the blitz, we were in zone, in man, and it was like Tyler could see 5 seconds into the future. He knew where everyone on offense and defense would be, seemed like before they even got there."
Rhodes said four of his receivers caught 40 or more passes, a testament to Watts’ ability to throw to his secondary options.
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