Jumbo Package: Alabama takes home more hardware, Smitty heavily favored to win Heisman tonight
Smitty #Smitty
Happy Tuesday, everyone. Alabama basketball is slightly favored in what is now a huge early season tile with Florida tonight at Coleman. After some early season struggles, few thought the Tide would open SEC play with a blowout win over Ole Miss and a road win over #7 Tennessee, but here we are. Bamabrave4 will be along with the preview later.
In football news, Alabama took home some more hardware yesterday.
Congratulations to the offensive line and to Mac Jones. It is highly possible that Najee Harris takes home the Doak Walker and DeVonta Smith the Biletnikoff, which would give the Tide a clean sweep of all major offensive awards. I can’t imagine that has ever happened before.
Of course, Smitty is poised to get the most hyped trophy of all tonight.
If Smith becomes the third wide receiver to take home the Heisman — and the first since Desmond Howard in 1991 — he won’t have self-promotion to thank.
“The Slim Reaper” was the most productive wide receiver in the FBS during the regular season. Even with defenses focusing more closely on him after Jaylen Waddle suffered a right ankle injury against Tennessee on Oct. 24, Smith finished first in receptions (98) and receiving yards (1,511), and second in both all-purpose yards (1,767) and receiving touchdowns (17).
The last non-quarterback/running back who won the Heisman was Michigan’s Charles Woodson, who beat out Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning in a surprising vote in 1997. Woodson’s primary position was cornerback, but he also returned punts and saw significant action at wide receiver.
The three non-QB/RB Heisman winners prior to Woodson were also multi-purpose players who excelled as kick-returners: Michigan’s Desmond Howard in 1991, Notre Dame’s Tim Brown in 1987 and Nebraska’s Johnny Rodgers in 1972.
DeVonta returned for his senior season and will go down as one of the greatest WRs to ever play the game. Not too shabby.
Saban spoke to reporters yesterday, as he typically does on Mondays.
“I’ve met him before,” Saban said of Day. “I think he’s an outstanding coach. I think they do a fantastic job with their team, the way their team competes, the way their team plays, the discipline, the togetherness that they have, the way they execute. And offensively he does a good job of trying to manage and control the tempo of the game on offense. And they do a really good job of executing, which is all about coaching your players to know what to do, how to do it, and why it’s important to do it that way, and they do it extremely well.
“I think you just have to separate yourself and focus on — look, if it wasn’t for the players, if it wasn’t for the players at the Cleveland Browns being the best defense, I probably would have never got the Michigan State job,” Saban said. “So you kind of owe it to the players to give your best, to do your best to help them get prepared for the game so they can play well in the game. That’s how I always felt. I think that’s how Sark feels.”
It goes without saying that we need Sark’s best on Monday.
Patrick Surtain II may not have meant to talk any smack, but it sort of came across that way.
“They’re very finesse type of receivers,” Surtain said. “They’ve got speed, vertical threats, but they also run great routes. It’s going to be a challenge for us as a secondary and as a unit, so we go and watch film on them and prepare like we need to focus on their concepts and what they like to do.”
Calling any football player “finesse type” as akin to talking about their mothers.
That’s about it for now. Have a great day.
Roll Tide.