August is nearly here, so I better squeeze in my annual look at Virginia Tech’s high school signees before they start taking the field. We’ll focus on the backfield to start things off. Tech’s brought in two very different quarterbacks, an interesting hybrid player, and two backs who know how to make highlights.

William Watson III
Quarterback
Springfield Central High, Springfield, MA
5’11, 176

Hokie fans were treated to a preview of “Pop” Watson in the spring game. His high school film shows the same dynamic athlete and improvisational gifts, though his competition generally wasn’t the best. A former Nebraska commit, he also had the eyes of Tennessee, Kentucky, BC, Michigan, Pitt, and Oregon. He claims a blistering 4.42 shuttle time and has nice placement on the deep ball. Watson played for an Inside/Outside Zone team, splitting between pistol and shotgun. He was at his best in the passing game when his maneuverability broke down defenses’ discipline, though he looked comfortable progressing through Mesh concepts.

In his final game, Watson was shut down in a rainy 13-0 title game loss to St. John’s Prep (Danvers.) St. John’s unsettled Watson with an aggressive pressure defense that had enough speed to stay on his hip and enough size to drag him around. Interestingly, he was also the team’s punter; he wasn’t exactly good at it, but he could make the veritable third-down quick-kick play work. Given his agility, I’m also wondering if Tech let him mess around at the returner spots any this spring, just to see what he had.

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