New Jersey football paved the way for Bryce Watts' journey to Rutgers

Earlier this week, Rutgers landed its second commitment to the class of 2017 as Toms River North athlete Bryce Watts announced that he will be extending his football career within the state of New Jersey which began a long time ago.

Football actually began at five years of age for Watts.

It started out with flag football in Lakewood, N.J., and then continued in Manchester and finally in Toms River.

“I kind of tried different programs. My step-dad coached for Manchester,” Watts said. “I played for him and then he went to Toms River. So wherever he went, I went.”

It was at Toms River where Watts settled in and started to make a name for himself.

“I realized that I could play college ball right after my eighth grade year. I knew I had to take the next step,” Watts said. “I didn’t wind up playing freshman ball. I went right to varsity and started as a freshman. I knew I could adapt to the changes and the speed of the game.”

Watts played quarterback leading up to his freshman season and it was not until high school that he began to utilize his skills at wide receiver on the offensive side of the football.

“I went to Florida for AYS [Alliance Youth Sports] all-stars and I played receiver down there. Everything changed from there,” Watts said. “I loved that position and it just stuck with me.”

Watts was cruising along at Toms River North High School and everything was lining up for him to have a stellar junior season, one that could do a lot to propel his recruitment.

But his season wound up being cut short when injury reared its ugly head.

“I hurt my knee and it scared me when it happened. But I went to the doctor’s and he said it was only a sprain,” Watts said. “I didn’t want to play on it if I didn’t have to. I knew it would hurt my film a little bit. I knew with a whole season I would have had so much more film to show.”

The end result was three full games to put on film, showing Watts at 100% health. That was also much less than what the junior prospects throughout the state were able to showcase on their respective film.

“I was really upset that I had only three games to put on film. I was a little worried,” Watts said. “But my dad was really, really encouraging and it helped.”

As the winter moved on, recruiting was relatively quiet for Watts until the Rutgers coaching staff got hold of his game film and extended an offer.

“I have always been a fan of Rutgers since I was small,” Watts said. “Growing up, I went to Rutgers games and really admired them. I used to like Leaping [Brian] Leonard, Tiquan Underwood, Kenny Britt, Mike Teel and on defense I liked Courtney Greene and I always watched the McCourty brothers.”

Other schools began showing interest and a couple more offers came in, but Watts' decision had been pretty much made up since he learned of his Rutgers offer.

“Rutgers has always been the first thing in my head. Now I have an opportunity to go there,” he said.

The last six weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind for Watts as he has seen a dramatic increase in attention.

“It is definitely amazing and truly a blessing. It went from me getting literally no attention to becoming pretty popular on Twitter,” Watts said.

Watts is being recruited as a defensive back by Rutgers, but his skillset could also lead him to the offensive side of the football if needed.

And now that his New Jersey athletic will continue into college, he’s excited to help write a new chapter in Rutgers football.

“This program is about to change. Coach Ash is taking all that stuff from Wisconsin and Ohio State and make this program great. All they do is strength in the weight room. Rutgers is really in for a big change.”