Alabama Football's Mac Jones Walks Through DeVonta Smith's One-Handed Catch at LSU
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After the dust settled from Alabama football's 55-17 thumping of LSU in Death Valley on Saturday night, one play more than any other was discussed as the highlight of the game.
A one-handed, fully-extended touchdown catch made by senior wide receiver DeVonta Smith in the final seconds before halftime.
However, if you talked to the man himself about the spectacular grab, Smith is the kind of guy that never tries to bring attention to himself.
After the game on Saturday night, Smith treated the catch like it was no different than any other grab he has made so far in his career.
“To me, one-handed catches are not something that you practice — they just happen,” Smith said. “When you try to attempt a one-hand catch on purpose, it never works out right so it’s just something that happened — it just happens.”
Enter senior quarterback Mac Jones.
Jones, who threw the high pass that forced Smith to make the snag, has no qualms with talking up his teammate.
During Alabama's media availability with the players on Monday afternoon, Jones quickly ran through the play and what all went into it.
“Quick story about that pass," Jones chuckled. "We ran the same play against Missouri. On the 18th play of the game vs Missouri in the Red Zone and I threw that same pass, but I threw it too far to the right and it was out bounds. Smitty wasn’t mad at me, but he was like, ‘Just throw it up. Throw it up.’
"So eight games later, we run the same play, Smitty runs a great route on [Derek] Stingley and I just kind of threw it up towards the back and he just made a great play and helped me out. That goes back to trust. That was a great play right there."
The touchdown was Smith's third of the game. Combine that with eight receptions for 231 yards, and it was a memorable night that might have put the wideout back in the Heisman Trophy conversation.
According to Jones, the catch was just another addition to a long reel of highlight footage.
“From a great catch standpoint, there’s a highlight reel that goes on forever with Smitty. I don’t have a specific one. But I think one-on-one I’m going to throw it up to him and hope that he can continue to make plays.”
Smith now has 38 touchdowns in his stellar career with the Crimson Tide — enough to put him far and above as the all-time SEC leader in touchdown receptions. Smith is now also just 49 yards behind Amari Cooper as second all-time in the SEC in receiving yards with 3,414.
Smith was announced as one of 11 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, an annual award that is given to the nation's best wide receiver.
According to Jones, there is no doubt that his teammate is one of the best players — not just wide receivers — in the country.
“If you watch the games, I’d assume you could see that DeVonta is one of the best players in the country," Jones said. "He goes out there and makes plays and he does it because he trains very hard in practice, puts the extra work in, and he’s been doing that for four years here. And he’s been doing that for a long time before he got here. He makes players That’s the type of player he is. He’s a great player to have on our team.”
