Boston College Football Hires Former Auburn Assistant GM of Recruiting as General Manager

The Eagles' new GM of football is a former wide receiver and return specialist for BC from 1993-96.

Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) via X.

Earlier in the 2025 season, Boston College football head coach Bill O’Brien hinted at the idea of hiring alumni of the program to either the coaching staff or the front office. On Monday afternoon, that idea morphed into a reality.

According to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, the Boston College Athletics department hired Kenyatta Watson, a former wide receiver/return specialist for the Eagles—who caught 93 passes for 1,215 yards, generated 2,252 total return yards and scored eight touchdowns over the course of 40 games for BC from 1993-96—as the football team’s next general manager.

Boston College is hiring Auburn’s Kenyatta Watson as its new general manager, his agent @CoachReedLive at @KlutchSports tells me and @chris_hummer for @CBSSports.

Watson has been assistant general manager at Auburn. pic.twitter.com/327ytwSNGS

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 1, 2025

Watson additionally announced the news on his personal X account, tweeting out an old photo of himself from his playing days at Boston College.

"WE BACK...," Watson wrote.

Watson replaces former BC football general manager Spencer Dickow, who served in the role from February 2024.

Watson was previously the assistant general manager of recruiting at Auburn University. He was hired by the program on Feb. 14, 2024, after previously serving as the director of scouting at Georgia Tech since 2022. Watson came to Atlanta, Ga., from Florida State, where he was the Seminoles’ director of player relations for nine months from July 2021 to March 2022. 

Before then, Watson spent more than a decade developing youth and high-school football talent in the Atlanta metro area, most notably as the director of football operations and recruiting for the football program at Grayson High School in Logansville, Ga., from 2014-2018.

During his five years at Grayson, he helped nearly 120 football student-athletes earn collegiate scholarships. 

A Deerfield Beach, Fla., native, Watson turned into one of the top punt returners in Big East Conference history as an Eagle, ranking among the top 10 all-time with 84 punt returns (second), 816 punt-return yards (sixth) and two punt-return touchdowns (ninth). He led the Big East and ranked second nationally with two punt-return touchdowns as a junior in 1995.

Watson earned his bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in marketing from Boston College in 1996. His son, Kenyatta II, played college football as a cornerback at Georgia Tech from 2019-23 and one season at Georgia State in 2024, earning 2024 All-Sun Belt Honorable Mention honors and a 2024 College Football Network All-Sun Belt Honorable Mention nod as well.

This homecoming for Watson signals a massive reinforcement of the BC Athletics department’s commitment toward its football program after a season in which the Eagles finished second-to-last in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 2-10 overall record and a 1-7 conference record in O’Brien’s second year at the helm.

It appears that Watson has already made an impact in his new role—on Sunday, the program added three-star defensive tackle Cameron McGee out of Grayson High School, where Watson previously worked.

More details on this report are expected to surface in the near future.