Name: Desmond Watson
Position: Defensive Tackle
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 380 lbs
Hometown: Seffner, Fla.
High School: Armwood High School
Twitter: @DesmondWatson12
247Sports Composite: ⭐⭐⭐
Rivals.com: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overview:
Successful in landing four-star running back/wide receiver Charles Montgomery’s commitment on May 24, the Florida Gators landed another Armwood High School Hawk, located in Seffner, about 130 miles south of Gainesville, in three-star Desmond Watson on July 30.
A massive defensive tackle at 6-foot-5 and 380 pounds, he is the No. 21 player at his position and a top-55 player in the state, per the 247Sports Composite.
The whirlwind life of a Power Five student-athlete is not unfamiliar to Watson, as his half-brother, Darrian McNeal, a three-star prospect in the 2017 class, played one season for then-head coach Willie Taggart’s Oregon Ducks, catching two passes for 10 yards (five avg.) and adding three rushing attempts for 21 yards (seven avg.).
Unfortunately, McNeal’s athletic career took a dark turn, as he left the Ducks in the spring of 2018 and was arrested and charged with first-degree theft and second-degree robbery in June 2020, following an incident at a Eugene apartment.
As for Watson, he originally picked up his Florida offer on January 17, 2019, and he attended two Junior Days in an approximately five-week span from February 1-to-March 7, 2020. Primarily recruited by defensive line coach David Turner and cornerbacks coach Torrian Gray, he chose the Gators over the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Atlantic Owls, South Florida Bulls, West Virginia Mountaineers and 16 reported others.
Andrew Ivins, a Miami Hurricanes insider for 247Sports, highlights Watson’s quick hands and effectiveness against double teams as some of his strengths and points to his weight as a possible concern.
Overall, he is the fourteenth-highest rated of the program’s 24 commits in the upcoming cycle and the eighth-highest on the defensive side of the football. Turner has picked up pledges from three defensive linemen in the class, with Fort Lauderdale’s Tyreak Sapp and Sumter, South Carolina’s Justus Boone, both four-stars, joining Watson.
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