Energizer OLB coach Bert Watts 'brings the juice' to Auburn
It’s not hard to miss Bert Watts when you watch Auburn practice. Odds are if you don’t see him running around and helping coordinate drills, you can hear him yelling and leading his players through practice.
Watts — along with Brad Bedell, who coaches tight ends — has quickly brought the energy as Auburn’s outside linebacker and special teams coach.
Nick Eason, who has an office right next door to Watts in the Auburn Athletics Complex, says Watts is consistently in the building at 5 a.m., getting in a workout prior to practice.
Then, when practice starts, he takes it up a notch. He wants to bring the energy, and he wants his players to do the same. Something he learned as a player at Cal.
“But the energy, I think it comes from my position coach when I was a player in college, he always taught me — J.P. Williams is his name — and we worked together as coaches as well, he taught me your players are going to be reflections of you,” Watts said. “So the energy that you bring day in and day out, if that’s what you want from your players, if you want your players to bring it everyday and be fired up, be excited and happy to be there and see practices as not just another practice but an opportunity to grow and get better every single day, you have to bring that as well, you have to show that as well.
“You can’t just, you know, say it, you have to bring the actions behind your words. And honestly, it’s always made it more fun for me. And the more energy I can bring, it just makes the whole process more exciting, more enjoyable and I think that allows me and my group with the edge backers and also the entire special teams and all the guys that we get to work with on the team, it makes it exciting. It makes it fun.”
He’s the same way off the field, too. With Watts and Eason working next door to each other, they also share similar coaching roles with Watts coaching the outside linebackers and Eason in charge of the defensive line. As one would expect, there’s some overlap in the positions.
When the two aren’t putting their heads together for plays, Eason says they’ll wrestle in the hallways and practice drills. Considering he’s going against a former NFL defensive linemen, Watts says it usually doesn’t end well for him.
And another coach Watts works with, sometimes in the “chemistry lab” as Derek Mason likes to call it, Jeff Schmedding has seen the same out of Watts.
“You’ve got to bring that energy and Bert has no problem doing that, that’s for sure,” Schmedding said. “He’s laced up in practice and running around loud with high energy and chasing guys to the ball… No question that Coach Watts brings the juice and he’s a pleasure to work with.”
So far, according to Watts, the players have enjoyed the energy he brings.
“Every single day, like when we get done with practice, there’s smiles as we huddle up as the edge backer group, everyone is smiling and they’re enjoying the process, they enjoy getting better and we’re all talking about how we can get better next practice and what we need to do and the goals we need to set,” Watts said. “So that’s something that I feel like you always have to do, you can’t ever let that slide. The good days, the bad days, when you step out on that field, I mean that’s what we do it for. You can feel the energy of each other and help each other out and bring what you need to that team to be successful. “
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