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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Pete Fiutak

DeVonta Smith Wins 2020 Heisman Trophy: A Historic Winner In A Great Field

DeVonta Smith won the 2020 Heisman Trophy. In a crazy year, and with a great field of candidates, the Alabama wide receiver put together a historic year.


DeVonta Smith Won The Heisman Trophy …

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Leave it to the smoothest player in the game to take home the Heisman Trophy in the roughest college football season of all-time.

DeVonta Smith won the 2019 Heisman Trophy as the first wide receiver since Michigan’s Desmond Howard got it in 1991.

Mac Jones put together the most efficient season in the history of college football. He threw for close to 4,000 yards before the College Football Playoff bowl win over Notre Dame with 32 touchdowns and just four interceptions.

Florida’s Kyle Trask was on the same touchdown and yardage pace as 2019 winner Joe Burrow, and remember, the voting was done before the bowl game. He threw for 42 touchdowns and five picks before the bowl, and he pushed Alabama to the brink in a classic SEC Championship.

Trevor Lawrence missed a few key games for Clemson, but he came back roaring as he led the Tigers to the ACC Championship and another appearance in the College Football Playoff. One of the best college quarterbacks of all-time, he’s a special talent closing out an amazing career.

And DeVonta Smith had to get past all of them.

When Howard won in 1991, he beat out Florida State QB Casey Weldon and BYU QB Ty Detmer. Both had great seasons, but neither one was going to make a big push. This year, Smith was able to beat three guys who could’ve taken home the Heisman without anyone blinking.

All Smith did was catch 98 passes before the bowl game for 1,511 yards and 17 touchdowns with a punt return for a score. He hit the 100-yard mark seven times, he was a dominant force in game after game, and when Jaylen Waddle went down for the year with an ankle injury, Smith stepped up.

He was the focus of every game plan by every secondary, and it didn’t matter as he scored multiple touchdowns in five of his last six regular season games – he wasn’t needed when he caught just three passes in the 52-3 win over Arkansas.

A quarterback won nine of the previous ten Heismans with Derrick Henry breaking it up in 2015, and now a wide receiver has broken through.

A national championship-winning touchdown catch over Georgia in overtime, a Heisman, and now another shot at a national championship.

Everything about DeVonta Smith’s college career has been historic.

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