Nick Saban raves about rarity of DeVonta Smith's big day against Ole Miss
Nick Saban has coached some big-time wide receivers in his time. He can’t recall a receiver turning in an individual performance quite like DeVonta Smith’s big game against Ole Miss in Week 5.
“We’ve had some outstanding players at receiver and they’ve had some fantastic days, but I don’t remember anyone ever having a day quite so productive as Smitty’s day this past Saturday,” Saban said when he called into “Hey Coach” on Thursday. “And a lot of people asked me the question, ‘Well, did you guys scheme it up so he would get all those opportunities?’ And I think what people need to understand is when you call a play, you may try to feature a certain player, but based on what the defense does, the quarterback’s going to throw the ball based on what the defense did.
“And it just happened to be that it worked out well for him. He played outstanding, so when he got the opportunities, he certainly took advantage of them. But it wasn’t like we went in the game saying, ‘Smitty’s going to have this kind of day today.’”
Smith had an 11-catch, 274-yard, 5-TD last Saturday’s in Alabama’s 59-31 win over the Rebels, earning him player of the week honors.
