Offers starting to roll in for Watkins

It wasn't long ago that not many people knew the name Jaylen Watkins out of Cape Coral, Fla. Despite a big junior season, the multi-position athlete was flying low on the recruiting radar. That quickly changed as soon as his junior season highlight film found its way onto the internet. Since then, Watkins went from zero offers to five offers with more on the way in a matter of weeks.

"I've got five offers so far right now," Watkins said. "UCF, Wake Forest, Duke, Marshall and my coach said that Alabama called him last week and asked if I have any intentions of leaving Florida and if I did they were going to send me an offer."

Though Watkins hasn't received an offer from the big three programs in the state of Florida, he is interested in them but is willing to explore other areas of the country.

"It really doesn't matter to me," he said. "Whatever school is the best fit for me or is the most comfortable that is where I'll go. The closest schools may heave a better chance though.

"I like Alabama. Before I didn't pay much attention to them but I've been looking at them on the internet and I like them a lot."

Since Watkins' highlight film was distributed he and his coach have been kept extremely busy with phone calls from college coaches.

"It has been a lot of schools," he said. "My coach says a lot of schools have started calling. Every day there is something coming in. My coach says that it was a matter of time. I didn't really know but I didn't think it would be like this."

With a 3.2 GPA, Watkins is in good shape academically and has been working out with track during the spring. He is a high-jumper and a sub-11 second 100 meter sprinter. Watkins also has plans to hit a couple of junior days in the coming weeks.

"I think Wednesday I might be going to USF for a basketball game or whatever," he said. "On the 28th I'm going to UCF for their junior day and for Spring Practice I'm going up to Florida."

The versatile athlete could play a number of positions on the field but many schools like him on defense.

"It really doesn't matter to me but DB is most likely where I'll play in college," he said. "Alabama is actually talking about offense, maybe slot receiver but all the other schools are DB. It doesn't matter what position I play. It's just whatever the team needs."