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Bama News
The topic of least interest to Alabama’s Heisman hopefuls
Mac Jones and DeVonta Smith are expected to be Heisman Trophy finalists when that group is announced Thursday.
The answer is yes.
Question: Are you sick of the Heisman Trophy talk?
A day after the final ballot was cast, Alabama’s two presumed finalists for the stiff-armed statue spoke with local reporters and it was clear which topic wasn’t of interest.
“Most definitely,” DeVonta Smith said when asked Tuesday morning if it was getting frustrating.
The senior is now leading the straw polls and gambling odds to become the first receiver in decades to claim college football’s top individual prize. The finalists will be officially announced at 6:30 p.m. CT Thursday with the winner crowned Jan. 5.
Their situation is rare with a quarterback and receiver in the hunt for the same Heisman. It’s uncommon enough to have multiple finalists from the same school, let alone the same passing game.
Mac Jones was asked if it was weird competing, in a sense, against Smith.
“I don’t know. That’s kind of a weird question,” Jones said. “We don’t really even think about awards. You can’t sit there and be like, ‘Oh, we want this, we want that.’ I mean, me and Smitty’s main goals -- we’ve literally talked about it before -- is just to come in and be leaders and win a national championship.
“That stuff always takes care of itself, and the production is there from -- I mean, there’s a handful of guys on our team that should be in the conversation for a lot of different awards.”
That’s true. Alabama has eight finalists for nine honors that’ll be handed out at the ESPN College Football Awards Show on Jan. 7, two days after the Heisman ceremony.
The timing with these awards -- as with everything this season -- changes the dynamic. Instead of handing out the Heisman and all other awards a week after the conference title games and before bowl games, all the honors will be announced between the CFP semifinals and the national championship game.
Instead of being able to move forward with these things decided, it will continue to hover over the next few weeks of practice and games. That’s partially what frustrates Smith.
“I’m only guaranteed one more game,” Smith said, “and I’m more focused on that than an award.”
When prompted, both offered an argument for the other’s case to win the Heisman.
“He’s the leader of the offense,” Smith said of his quarterback. “He controls everything — him and Landon (Dickerson). They’re the leader of everything.”
And the other side?
“Smitty, he’s the most electric player in college football,” Jones said. “He means the most to us here at Alabama football. You can watch the games and see that, what type of person he is with how he plays."
With the other awards going out after the Heisman, there won’t be any early hints as to who might be ahead in the race. Smith was named SEC offensive player of the year Tuesday while Jones was the first-team SEC quarterback over fellow Heisman contender Kyle Trask of Florida.
For now, it’s just background noise as Alabama practices a few times before getting three days off for Christmas.
“It just goes back to what we’ve talked about throughout the year,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of distractions with COVID and the season and disruptions, and Coach Saban has talked about that all year long. So, just listening to him and focusing on what you’re supposed to focus on. All that really matters is that you try and do your job each play. Some plays, you won’t be able to do your job as well as you would want, and then you just go back and learn from those errors that you made. But it all comes back to just focusing on what you can control.”
