By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

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The bright lights, for DeVonta Smith, have almost always come with highlights.

At the end of the first quarter of Alabama’s 52-3 win over Arkansas, a victory that made the Crimson Tide the first SEC team ever with ten conference wins, DeVonta Smith promptly returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown. He is now the second Power Five player in a decade with at least 80 receptions, 15 touchdown catches and a punt return for a score in a single season; the other, Oklahoma’s Dede Westbrook, was a Heisman Trophy finalist. Smith is officially adding to his resume.

Even with just three catches on 22 yards in a game where Alabama focused more on running the football, Smith’s recent stretch has been absolutely unprecedented. His last five games have come with 38 receptions for 771 yards and eleven touchdowns and now a punt return for a score and, of course, five wins. All against SEC competition. Simply put, Smith has been unstoppable and has been unstoppable for the nation’s best team.

The dynamic Smith, on an offense with fellow leading Heisman Trophy candidates in quarterback Mac Jones and running back Najee Harris, has been a one-of-a-kind playmaker. After Saturday, Smith is one of just four players this millennium with 15 touchdown catches, a rushing score and a punt return for a touchdown in a season, joining Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon, Oklahoma’s Ryan Broyles and Notre Dame’s Golden Tate. All that Smith has accomplished has been done for undefeated, top-ranked team averaging 50 points per game.

College football has never seen a career quite like Smith’s. Before ever emerging as a leading name for Alabama, much less a heralded Heisman Trophy candidate, he had a prominent place in program history. It was Smith, then just a true freshman, who caught the iconic game-winning walk-off touchdown pass in overtime from Tua Tagovailoa against Georgia in the 2017 national championship game. Then just Smith’s third touchdown catch, he has gone onto the most in the SEC all-time, currently with 35.

Remarkably, Smith calmly caught the most famous touchdown pass in college football title game history. Then he went to work.

Should Smith end up on the big stage, it would be a fitting continuation.

Beyond Smith’s signature catch, more than enough to immortalize any player, he has long been at his best in the spotlight. Smith scored a touchdown in his first Iron Bowl in Tuscaloosa and had six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown in against Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl as a sophomore, torched eventual national champion LSU for seven receptions for 213 yards and two scores as a junior and has compiled eleven grabs for 167 yards and two touchdowns versus Georgia and eight for 231 yards and three more in Baton Rouge this season.

The bright lights, for Smith, have almost always come with highlights. Not just an All-American, he is an all-timer.

Alabama, arguably modern “WRU”, has a storied lineage of stars on the perimeter. From legends Ozzie Newsome, David Palmer, Julio Jones and Amari Cooper to recent superstars Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and Jaylen Waddle, Smith is a leading part of that proud and remarkable history. More milestones, for him, may soon be on the horizon.

Smith is clearly one of the game’s best. Not just this season, but ever.