LSU wide receiver Winston Watkins can’t wait to take his seat at the family’s dinner table for the holidays.
After his career-high seven catches in LSU’s 55-10 blowout of Clemson in Saturday’s season opener, Watkins has plenty to get off his chest concerning his individual performance and that of his new team.
Watkins, an Ole Miss transfer, found additional fodder going into his first game at Tiger Stadium after a conversation with his cousin, Sammy Watkins, a former two-time All-American at Clemson and first-round draft selection who spent nine years in the NFL.
“I just talked to him yesterday (Monday),” Watkins said of Sammy Watkins during Tuesday player interviews with the local media. “He was laughing about it. I don’t think he expected it was going to be like that. It’s a pretty personal game to me. First game at LSU, against Clemson and Sammy Watkins, is my cousin. It’s like a game that I’ll never forget.
“That’s a family-type game,” Watkins said. “That’s my first ever playing Clemson. I may not ever play them again. I wanted to maximize my opportunity to go against them and just ball out. Now I get to talk trash at Thanksgiving.”
Watkins’ first appearance before a sellout crowd of more than 102,000 fans more than lived up to his expectations after the native of Ft. Myers left Ole Miss following his freshman season. He followed head coach Lane Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. to Baton Rouge.
He remembered his official visit nine months before when he was looking for a new home and recalled the recruiting pitch from Kiffin and how it was accurately it was portrayed during Saturday’s 41-point triumph.
“Everything they said about it was going to be electric, it’s going to be a crazy fan base,” Watkins said. “The (Seattle) Seahawks have the 12th man and that’s kind of how I felt. We have a whole thing on the field with all of those fans cheering for us.
“All they said before I got here, the fans were going to be amazing,” Watkins said. “The opportunities you’re going to have, you’re going to showcase your talents in front of the whole world. There’s tons of people watching people. Being able to do what I’ve been working here since I got here is a blessing. What they were telling me before I came was everything they said.”
Watkins was LSU’s top receiver with seven catches in 11 targets for 110 yards and a 32-yard touchdown.
He was part of an offense, led by Arizona State transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt, that piled up the most total yards (644) by an LSU offense in three years.
The Tigers controlled the line of scrimmage with their offensive line and Wisconsin running back transfer Dilin Jones had a game-high 23 carries for 113 yards and two touchdowns. Leavitt matched Jones with 113 yards on just 12 attempts and two touchdowns.
Watkins led a balanced wide receiver group that also included All-America tight end candidate Trey’Dez Green (4-58), Eugene Wilson (4-35) and Phillip Wright III (3-70, TD).
“Coming into the game I was super confident in the team because I saw the defense we have,” Watkins said. “Our defense is very elite. I feel like we’ve got guys all over the place on defense that’s going to help us go to whatever place we need to go at the end of the season.
“If we struggle in practice, I didn’t take it as struggling,” Winston said. “I took as we’re competing with one of the best defenses ever. I played college football last year and I’ve seen the Georgias and teams like that. I know what’s good and what’s not. Going into fall camp I knew we had a very elite defense. I wasn’t really worried about how the offense looked.”
Talented family roster
Watkins’ lineage suggests excellence.
Winston Watkins said growing up in Ft. Myers, future NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders was a name he was very familiar with before family members such as Sammy Watkins and Jaylen Watkins, who went on to play at Florida and was drafted in the NFL’s fourth round in 2014, blazed a trail for youth in their hometown.
Sammy was a 6-foot-1, 211-pound wide receiver that after a standout career at Clemson, where he was a two-time All-ACC selection. He played for five different teams over nine years in the NFL, the last in ’22 with the Baltimore Ravens.
He was a part of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl championship team in 2019.
Jaylen Watkins was a 5-11, 194-pound safety that went on to be drafted in the fourth round and played for six different teams in seven NFL seasons.
Another cousin, Austin Watkins, also of Ft. Myers who played wide receiver collegiately at the University of Alabama Birmingham before the 6-2, 210-pounder went undrafted in ’21.
“All of them have their pieces to me,” Winston said. “At the end of the day, they did a great job of feeding it to me. J.Y. (Jaylen) played the defensive side of the ball. They both inspired me, giving an impact to the youth in my city.
“In Ft. Myers, Deion Sanders is from there and that’s one of the bigger names that’s gone through there,” Winston said. “Sammy and J.Y. are other guys that made it out of there. It’s very personal to me because they’re my family. It shows me you’re capable of doing what they did. They made it out Ft. Myers. They showed it’s possible.”
Former West Virginia running back Noel Divine was another product of Ft. Myers who went undrafted in ’21 and was on the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles.
“When I was kid all I heard about was Sammy and Noel Divine,” he said. “Divine was a very known person that was electric on the field. He was undersized and I’ve felt like I was on the short end. Noel Divine was always a person that was talked about to me. Guys like that always influenced me to go out there and maximize my opportunity because there’s so many kids in Florida as talented that don’t get a chance to show it.”
Memorable opener
Winston Watkins, who is 5-10 and 183 pounds, made quite a name for himself at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. before transferring to First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla. and finishing up at Venice High (Fla.).
Watkins caught 78 passes for 1,011 yards and 17 touchdowns as a senior and was the nation’s No. 15 wide receiver and four-star prospect signed with Ole Miss where he caught 26 passes for 373 yards and a TD. He caught 11 passes in 15 games and added 21 yards on five carries.
His first outing for LSU was a slow build up before achieving his career best for catches in a game.
Watkins had one catch on three targets in the first quarter and added two catches for 47 yards on four targets in the second quarter.
He was just getting started.
With LSU in the midst of a stretch of scoring 51 straight points, the combination of Leavitt to Watkins worked four times in five targets for 54 yards – highlighted by a 32-yard score that made it 38-3 at the 8:21 mark of the third quarter.
“That was our first game,” Watkins said. “We played a really good game. But at the end of the day, we have so much more room to grow in. We left a lot of meat on the bone wide receiver wise. It’s really about getting on the same page as Sam, beating man to man coverage, and do what we have to do every day.”
By the time he got into his route on LSU’s third-and-five play, Watkins could sense confusion in Clemson’s coverage. With the safety out of place to shadow Wilson motioning over to the right side of the field, Watkins found an open crease downfield and hauled in Leavitt’s pass at the 5-yard line and easily scored his first touchdown in his new colors.
“I knew they were going to have a busted coverage,” Watkins said. “I saw the guy was confused. When I ran the route as I was crossing the field, I peaked at the safety. I knew if he hesitated, I would beat him with speed, and I took it and made the most of it.”
