Breakout season puts Asheville School wideout Jaden Watkins on the recruiting map
Chapel Fowler
The Fayetteville Observer
Last fall, Jaden Watkins wasn’t making many headlines.
The Asheville School junior was an unranked wide receiver better known around his hometown as a basketball player, and his sole football scholarship was from Brevard College, a nearby Division III school.
“But I wanted to have a breakout season,” Watkins said Tuesday. “I came in with a mindset: ‘Somebody’s going to look at me. Somebody’s going to take a chance.’ Every game, I just gave it my all.”
Months later, consider that mission accomplished.
After zigging and zagging all over the field to the tune of 185 all-purpose yards per game, the 6-foot-3, 175-pound Watkins has shot up recruiting boards. He currently ranks as a three-star recruit, the No. 23 player in North Carolina’s class of 2022 and the No. 113 junior wide receiver in the country.
Football recruiting: After strong senior seasons, seven more 2021 recruits will join UNC football this summer
And since late January, Watkins has announced 16 Division I football scholarships, with in-state schools Duke, East Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest among the many programs showing interest in him.
All In all, it’s been a meteoric rise for a longtime basketball lover who for years saw football as secondary to his hoop dreams. Up until eighth grade at Asheville Middle, Watkins said, he “didn’t even like football.”
But after a sit-down with his parents, Mike and Janna, a young Watkins decided it wouldn’t be too bad to have football as a second option if his NBA point guard aspirations didn’t proceed as planned.
He missed most of his eighth grade season with injury, and when he returned the coaching staff stuck him at wide receiver, instead of his usual quarterback position, so he wouldn’t take as many big hits.
“And it went from there,” Watkins said. “I’ve been playing receiver ever since.”
After stints at Asheville Christian Academy and Carolina Day School, Watkins transferred to Asheville School last summer so he and his younger sisters, Alayna and Alisha, could attend the same high school.
The Blues’ established football program was also a draw. Asheville School had recently hired former Tennessee and NFL running back Shawn Bryson as its new head coach, and on a school visit early last year Bryson and Watkins meshed immediately, the former calling the latter “just a great kid all around.”
“Since he first stepped on campus and started practicing and stuff, I thought that,” Bryson said last week of his star receiver. “I’ve been around a lot of good players, and he was one that was just different.”
Watkins had a unique opportunity to showcase his talents, too. Since Asheville School competes in the NCISAA, it was one of a few dozen schools permitted to play football last fall, as scheduled, while over a hundred NCHSAA schools held tight until the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the Blues’ season opener against Lakeway Christian Academy of Tennessee, Watkins promptly caught 10 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown while intercepting two passes as a defensive back.
Just like that, the breakout season he’d been hoping for was in full swing.
Over the next three games, Watkins kept racking up big plays while lining up at wide receiver, running back, wildcat quarterback, kick returner, safety and anywhere else the coaching staff asked him to.
He caught 25 passes for over 400 yards, averaged 7.9 yards per carry and filled up a 13-minute mixtape with highlights galore: double-teamed catches, short screen passes turned into 50-yard gains, a field-reversing, ankle-breaking scramble as a quarterback and a one-cut-and-gone kick return touchdown.
“I’ve got to give credit to my offensive coordinator, Adam Rice,” Watkins said. “He just put me in the right position. We knew I was going to see a lot of double teams, so we tried to get that safety off me so once that he cheated over, even a little, I could do my thing and make the big play.”
Watkins’ numbers were more impressive when you consider he played essentially every snap for Asheville School, which had a much smaller team than usual last season. (Top quarterback Rayden Aphayvong, who came to the Blues from Canada, started alongside Watkins at safety on defense.)
“You just try to get him the ball as many times as you can,” Bryson said.
Watkins ended the season with 739 all-purpose yards and nine total touchdowns, and after he posted his film to the recruiting website Hudl and his Twitter account, the views kept going up. And up. And up.
For subscribers: Gray’s Creek football coach David Lovette leaves former players with lasting memories
Duke took an immediate interest in Watkins, who’s also strong academically, and stayed in touch with him consistently over his winter break before offering him his first Division I scholarship on Jan. 28.
“Then it just started popping,” Watkins said, laughing. “Everybody was looking at me. I was on the phone with a coach almost every day. I think that first (offer) was an eye opener for everybody.”
He’s garnered plenty of in-state attention, and schools such as Coastal Carolina, Illinois, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and Yale are also in the mix for a receiver who models his game after the Atlanta Falcons’ Julio Jones and answers most frequently to Cash, the nickname his father gave him when he was born.
Watkins is in no rush to commit and will visit various campuses over the summer. But when the time comes, Bryson is confident his star receiver will use the same steadiness that propelled him to a breakout junior season at Asheville School to choose the best college fit for him and his family.
When it comes to Cash, you can take that to the bank.
Chapel Fowler is a recruiting reporter for The Fayetteville Observer and the USA TODAY Network. Re
Chapel Fowler
The Fayetteville Observer
Last fall, Jaden Watkins wasn’t making many headlines.
The Asheville School junior was an unranked wide receiver better known around his hometown as a basketball player, and his sole football scholarship was from Brevard College, a nearby Division III school.
“But I wanted to have a breakout season,” Watkins said Tuesday. “I came in with a mindset: ‘Somebody’s going to look at me. Somebody’s going to take a chance.’ Every game, I just gave it my all.”
Months later, consider that mission accomplished.
After zigging and zagging all over the field to the tune of 185 all-purpose yards per game, the 6-foot-3, 175-pound Watkins has shot up recruiting boards. He currently ranks as a three-star recruit, the No. 23 player in North Carolina’s class of 2022 and the No. 113 junior wide receiver in the country.
Football recruiting: After strong senior seasons, seven more 2021 recruits will join UNC football this summer
And since late January, Watkins has announced 16 Division I football scholarships, with in-state schools Duke, East Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest among the many programs showing interest in him.
All In all, it’s been a meteoric rise for a longtime basketball lover who for years saw football as secondary to his hoop dreams. Up until eighth grade at Asheville Middle, Watkins said, he “didn’t even like football.”
But after a sit-down with his parents, Mike and Janna, a young Watkins decided it wouldn’t be too bad to have football as a second option if his NBA point guard aspirations didn’t proceed as planned.
He missed most of his eighth grade season with injury, and when he returned the coaching staff stuck him at wide receiver, instead of his usual quarterback position, so he wouldn’t take as many big hits.
“And it went from there,” Watkins said. “I’ve been playing receiver ever since.”
After stints at Asheville Christian Academy and Carolina Day School, Watkins transferred to Asheville School last summer so he and his younger sisters, Alayna and Alisha, could attend the same high school.
The Blues’ established football program was also a draw. Asheville School had recently hired former Tennessee and NFL running back Shawn Bryson as its new head coach, and on a school visit early last year Bryson and Watkins meshed immediately, the former calling the latter “just a great kid all around.”
“Since he first stepped on campus and started practicing and stuff, I thought that,” Bryson said last week of his star receiver. “I’ve been around a lot of good players, and he was one that was just different.”
Watkins had a unique opportunity to showcase his talents, too. Since Asheville School competes in the NCISAA, it was one of a few dozen schools permitted to play football last fall, as scheduled, while over a hundred NCHSAA schools held tight until the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the Blues’ season opener against Lakeway Christian Academy of Tennessee, Watkins promptly caught 10 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown while intercepting two passes as a defensive back.
Just like that, the breakout season he’d been hoping for was in full swing.
Over the next three games, Watkins kept racking up big plays while lining up at wide receiver, running back, wildcat quarterback, kick returner, safety and anywhere else the coaching staff asked him to.
He caught 25 passes for over 400 yards, averaged 7.9 yards per carry and filled up a 13-minute mixtape with highlights galore: double-teamed catches, short screen passes turned into 50-yard gains, a field-reversing, ankle-breaking scramble as a quarterback and a one-cut-and-gone kick return touchdown.
“I’ve got to give credit to my offensive coordinator, Adam Rice,” Watkins said. “He just put me in the right position. We knew I was going to see a lot of double teams, so we tried to get that safety off me so once that he cheated over, even a little, I could do my thing and make the big play.”
Watkins’ numbers were more impressive when you consider he played essentially every snap for Asheville School, which had a much smaller team than usual last season. (Top quarterback Rayden Aphayvong, who came to the Blues from Canada, started alongside Watkins at safety on defense.)
“You just try to get him the ball as many times as you can,” Bryson said.
Watkins ended the season with 739 all-purpose yards and nine total touchdowns, and after he posted his film to the recruiting website Hudl and his Twitter account, the views kept going up. And up. And up.
For subscribers: Gray’s Creek football coach David Lovette leaves former players with lasting memories
Duke took an immediate interest in Watkins, who’s also strong academically, and stayed in touch with him consistently over his winter break before offering him his first Division I scholarship on Jan. 28.
“Then it just started popping,” Watkins said, laughing. “Everybody was looking at me. I was on the phone with a coach almost every day. I think that first (offer) was an eye opener for everybody.”
He’s garnered plenty of in-state attention, and schools such as Coastal Carolina, Illinois, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and Yale are also in the mix for a receiver who models his game after the Atlanta Falcons’ Julio Jones and answers most frequently to Cash, the nickname his father gave him when he was born.
Watkins is in no rush to commit and will visit various campuses over the summer. But when the time comes, Bryson is confident his star receiver will use the same steadiness that propelled him to a breakout junior season at Asheville School to choose the best college fit for him and his family.
When it comes to Cash, you can take that to the bank.
Chapel Fowler is a recruiting reporter for The Fayetteville Observer and the USA TODAY Network. Re
