Texas pulls in former Ohio State transfer CB Ryan Watts

The Ohio State Buckeyes are actually turning into a place where head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program are starting to draw in a lot of talent. Texas has now pulled in two commitments to their program among former Ohio State underclassmen out of the NCAA Transfer Portal.

The first player that Sark and the Longhorns got among former Buckeyes in the transfer portal early this offseason was the former elite five-star recruit and freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers. Landing a commitment from Ewers out of the transfer portal was the earth-shattering move that really ushered in a promising offseason on the Forty Acres.

Then, the second addition that the Longhorns got among former Buckeyes players in the transfer portal came on the night of Dec. 22 in the form of redshirt freshman cornerback Ryan Watts. This is a nice addition to help start rounding out the Longhorns secondary early in the offseason.

Watts announced on his Twitter timeline on the night of Dec. 22 that he would be officially transferring from Ohio State to Texas. This was met with an explosion of positive reactions from the Longhorns faithful on social media.

Texas football adding former Ohio State DB Ryan Watts out of the portal

At this point of the month of December, Watts was the biggest target in the transfer portal for the Longhorns. There are going to be other big-time transfer portal targets that emerge for Texas this offseason, but it’s nice to see this staff essentially going 2-for-2 among their top targets so far.

Texas was initially one of the top schools in the running to land a commitment from the Little Elm defensive back Watts when he was coming out of high school. But Watts got away from the staff of former Texas head coach Tom Herman as his recruitment moved along.

His decision eventually came down to the likes of the Oklahoma Sooners, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Ohio State. He eventually committed to Oklahoma in April 2019. But he would later essentially flip his commitment from Oklahoma to Ohio State before signing his National Letter of Intent during the Early Signing Period in late 2019.

There are multiple connections that Watts has to the current Texas coaching staff. Sark and special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jeff Banks (even Kyle Flood) were ace recruiters on Alabama’s coaching staff at the time of Watts’ recruitment. Granted, Banks and Sark weren’t either of the top two recruiters going after Watts at the time.

Notre Dame was also a top school for Watts when Terry Joseph was the defensive backs coach on their staff.

One interesting connection here is the fact that new Texas running backs coach Tashard Choice was his top recruiter from the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets during his recruitment. Watts announced his commitment to Texas out of the transfer portal just a few days after Choice was officially named the next running backs coach for the Longhorns.

Moreover, the scheme fit between Watts and the Longhorns should be a smooth one. It looks like Watts is likely going to compete for reps at Texas at the safety position. He may translate into more of a true cornerback or nickel later, but the need for the Longhorns right now is at the safety position.

Texas has the nickel position established with senior Anthony Cook. And there are multiple players that will be competing for starting reps at corner including returning senior D’Shawn Jamison, sophomore Jahdae Barron, sophomore Kitan Crawford, and incoming freshman Terrance Brooks, among others.

Yet, Texas is trying to replace the likes of senior safeties B.J. Foster and Brenden Schooler, and juniors Tyler Owens and Chris Adimora in 2022. Adding the 6-foot-3 and 205-pound Watts gives Texas a lengthy, athletic, and instinctual defensive back that has enough versatility to fit in at safety.

Watts is a very gifted athlete with great speed, agility, and vertical ability. There are a number of areas he could still improve, including his tackling ability and play diagnosing when dropping back in pass coverage. Watts’ ball skills did improve over the course of his first two seasons at Ohio State, at least from the snaps he did get.

There’s not a huge body of work to look at from Watts during his two seasons at Ohio State. But he did take just shy of 150 defensive snaps in the last two seasons. Essentially all of his snaps were taken at corner, but he did lineup in the box or at safety from time to time.

This fall was the biggest sample size for Watts at Ohio State. About half of his snaps that he took were in run defense and the other half were in pass coverage.

He was targeted five times in pass coverage, good for two completions for 13 yards and one touchdown allowed. And two of those passing attempts did result in interceptions for Watts. He had interceptions in back-to-back games for the Buckeyes this season.

As the season moved along, Watts did show some real growth in his pass coverage ability. His ball skills also showed pretty solid improvement as the 2021 campaign moved along.

In terms of his ability in defending the run, Watts was up and down. That was a reflection of his inconsistencies in terms of open-field tackling. He came up with six combined tackles, no tackles for loss, two run stops, and three missed tackles this season.

The missed tackles need to be cut down on for Watts moving forward. Texas already had some issues with their safeties missing tackles this season, especially with the likes of Schooler and Foster taking some poor angles while defending the run and the pass.

Watts is a big addition to the Longhorns. While he still has room to grow in terms of his open-field tackling ability and his play diagnosing, Watts could be a high-caliber starter in the defensive backfield right away for co-defensive coordinators Pete Kwiatkowski and Jeff Choate.

Between the 2022 recruiting class and their two transfer portal additions so far this offseason, Texas is now up to 28 scholarship signees coming onto the Forty Acres. What the scholarship numbers look like moving forward will still be dependant upon who else enters the transfer portal from this program.