SEC News: Smith’s Heisman win hammers home banner ‘Bama year

Things couldn’t have gone better for Alabama in 2020 after DeVonta Smith won the Heisman as a representative of both the Tide and the SEC.

It just means more when a fellow SEC ballplayer wins the most prestigious award in college sports: the Heisman Trophy.

For Auburn fans, it means more heartbreak–if you take the Roll Tide-War Eagle rivalry personally.

DeVonta Smith was painfully deserving of the Heisman, which he won Tuesday night in history-making fashion:

"DeVonta Smith is the first receiver to win the Heisman in nearly 30 years.The Alabama star was awarded the 2020 Heisman Trophy on Tuesday ahead of teammate Mac Jones, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Florida quarterback Kyle Trask. Smith is the first wide receiver to win the Heisman since Michigan’s Desmond Howard won the award after the 1991 season.Smith is the third Alabama player to win the Heisman Trophy and all three of those Crimson Tide wins have come in the last 12 seasons. Current Baltimore Ravens running back Mark Ingram was the first Alabama Heisman winner in 2009 and Tennessee Titans rusher Derrick Henry won the trophy in 2015."

Half of the Heisman candidates were from the Alabama Crimson Tide. Nick Saban built up a super-team of football avengers in ways that don’t seem comprehensible on the Plains–or anywhere else for that matter.

Mac Jones, the “game-managing extraordinaire” Bo Nix perhaps jealously insulted before the 2020 Iron Bowl, was the Tide’s other representative at college football’s swankiest ceremony. Najee Harris, perhaps the next great ‘Bama back in the vein of Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry, was the fifth-place runner-up…meaning 3/5ths of the Top 5 players in college football were from Tuscaloosa.

The event, a Zoom ceremony for the first–and please lord, be the last–time, was anti-climactic compared to most years. Auburn fans can at least revel in the fact that Alabama may win the National Championship in front of the least amount of fans possible after Smith won the Heisman in front of no one.

The SEC also had Kyle Trask of Florida in the top four, alongside Trevor Lawrence.