Lynne Sladky / Associated Press
He left the field with a damp towel over his mutilated right hand. Another towel was hanging from his mouth. For a night as magical as this, it was a cruel way to end DeVonta Smith’s season and college football career.
It took a blow – an awkward approach to start the second half – to end Smith’s night. From there, he spent a long time in the injured tent before disappearing into the locker room. And so, it was over.
What happened in the previous 30 minutes, however, is something that the sport will be processing for some time. While Alabama didn’t have the best outing to play on the show for much of the second half, the damage was done. Not just for your dislocated finger, but for the defense of Ohio state before that. To the scoreboard. For the story.
Smith, having collected his Heisman less than a week earlier, validated a historic moment with a dominant and overwhelming performance to crown a dominating and overwhelming year.
Alabama won. Of course yes. The best team with the best attack and the best head coach who ever walked a touchline was too much for the State of Ohio. Tide’s 52-24 victory over the Buckeyes was in many ways a continuation of what was on display throughout the season.
The first half, a dominant 35-17 start, was largely due to Smith. In a single stroke, he took 12 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns. He slid across the football field, as he always does.
He gave a soft stroke to the sideline. He overcame the Ohio State attack for his loneliness in the first half, which is not normal, no matter how normal he made it look in this game and in those who came before him.
LeBron James could not avoid take notice. Davante Adams, one of the best broadcasts in the NFL, joined him. Smith’s former teammate Jerry Jeudy took the praise a step further.
“The best WR to play college football”, Jeudy I wrote.
Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press
At this point, it is difficult to argue. Of course, we are all guilty of being prisoners of the moment. The problem with this argument is that it was not only just a moment. It was another moment in a long line of moments.
In the summer of 2019, I spent a morning with Smith inside the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility. He was quiet. In fact, he felt uncomfortable talking about himself and his legacy.
At the time, he was the third or fourth best wide receiver in a team that also featured Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and Jaylen Waddle.
He was known for such an important capture that in Tuscaloosa, he will forever be known as The footprint. When Tua Tagovailoa met Smith, both freshmen at the time, in a 41-yard touchdown to win a national championship in overtime three years ago, his legacy was cemented.
If it all ended there, in a single moment, his legacy would have been celebrated for generations. But thinking about it was not something Smith was willing to process. In fact, this catch was a boat anchor.
“This book has already been written,” said Smith, trying to distance himself from the moment. “It’s time to write another one.”
After two seasons, a huge catch and modest statistics, Smith exploded in 2019 with 1,256 yards and 14 touchdowns. Despite being one of four incredible options, he became the best of the group. Instead of declaring for the NFL and joining Jeudy and Ruggs, he made the surprising decision to return to Alabama.
As brilliant as his 2019 season was, his effort in 2020 was unlike anything the position had seen in a while. Waddle’s injury at the beginning changed everything. With more opportunities, Smith delivered in a way that few have.
Chris O’Meara / Associated Press
He rewrote the SEC’s history book, defining the single season and career earning yard marks. He did the same with single season and career touchdown records.
Smith became the first wideout to win Heisman since 1991. And although he played only half the night on Monday, he set the record for most receptions and tied the record for most touchdowns in a league game.
In all, Smith ended this season with 117 receptions, 1,856 yards and 25 touchdowns in total in just 13 games. It is difficult to capture this type of year and impact on the appropriate words or numbers.
It is even more difficult when you compare Smith to the many great players, both in his position and in others, who came before him in Alabama.
Typically, greatness in Tuscaloosa is quantified with size and speed and refined physical gifts in the squat rack. Greatness here, in the most dominant program in college football, is usually accompanied by protruding muscles and cartoon skill sets.
Julio Jones. Derrick Henry. Soccer players who played and looked like superheroes. These types of players have shaped Alabama in the dynasty it is – a place where some of the nation’s greatest athletes have gathered, for most of a decade, to see how far they can go.
Smith is not that. Even now, having been built by Bama in the past four years, he ends his university career as a skinny and slim figure. He is much less skinny than when he arrived, although his brilliance is never captured by his size, his 40’s time or the normal qualifiers for excellence in football.
Chris O’Meara / Associated Press
He leaves Alabama with the biggest catch, the best season and the biggest half of the show’s history. He goes out with a Heisman, having broken through a barrier that we didn’t think possible for a wide receiver. He leaves with two national championships, having been an integral part in both.
He leaves Alabama and college football as one of the most decorated players of all time and with a career that few have done from start to finish. And he does it with an injured right hand. It was the only thing that could stop him this season.
After the game, with his hands behind his back and a national championship shirt slung over his shoulder, Smith was asked about his year.
“Unbelievable,” he said in the broadcast. “We just wrote our story. That was all [about] us coming back. Just finishing the story we wanted to write. And we did that. “
The book could have been written after a capture. After three seasons. But it was not.
And now, after a career and legacy matched by few, in a program where such dominance is regular, Smith will leave as one of the greatest of all time. Not just the biggest in Alabama or the biggest who ever played in that position.
Considering everything we’ve seen, these qualifiers no longer seem appropriate. This was something else. And although it ended earlier than it should have, what a story it was.