Top 5 is set, Tyson Watson will announce on Friday
Warren (Mich.) Mott three-star defensive end Tyson Watson pared his list of 20 scholarship offers down to a Top 5 earlier this week. Watson will make his commitment on Friday, in an announcement held exclusively on Rivals.
The five schools Watson will decide between are Indiana, Iowa State, Michigan State, Tennessee and Toledo. He had initially planned to take official visits this spring, then announce a decision in June. The current recruiting dead period made those visits impossible, but Watson is comfortable with where he stands going into Friday’s announcement.
“Wherever I go, it’s where I want to be,” Watson remarked. “It’s not because I rushed into a commitment.”
Watson was taking campus visits right up until the NCAA put college football recruiting back into a dead period in mid-March. He made his final visit to a Tennessee program that sits in his final five.
“Probably my favorite part was meeting the whole coaching staff, how much experience everybody had on that coaching staff and what everybody had done,” Watson said following that visit. “My dad said he was on the same page as me with the experience that their coaching staff had. It’s a group of people you would want to be around.”
The five schools in Watson’s top group represent four different conferences, including a Toledo program that is the only non-Power Five finalist.
“It’s my relationship with coach (Larry) Black,” Watson said of Toledo. “We always talk on the phone and he’s a great guy. They have a good coaching staff and I really like them.”
Michigan State is the most recent to offer of the five schools remaining on Watson’s list. New head coach Mel Tucker and his staff offered Watson on April 4.
“I never got to visit when coach Tucker was there. I did take a gameday visit,” Watson said. “I’ve talked to coach (Ron) Burton for so long and I like the staff and the energy around there.”
Indiana is the only school in Watson’s top five that he has yet to visit. Meanwhile, Iowa State is trying to make it two commitments from southeast Michigan in as many weeks, after landing Southfield A&T athlete Robert Army on April 7. Watson visited the Cyclones last summer.
“I almost didn’t take that visit,” Watson said. “That same weekend I was visiting Iowa and I texted the coach, said ‘could I visit?’ They were on break, so it was just us there. The campus was amazing and I really liked it.
“I didn’t get to Indiana, but coach (Kevin) Peoples, the defensive line coach, I talk to him a lot.”
Once the NCAA ends the dead period and prospective student-athletes are able to take visits again, Watson plans to officially visit the school he picks on Friday. It will be the only official visit he takes.
Tune in to Rivals on Friday, April 17, at 3pm ET to hear Watson announce his college selection.