Alabama's Trio of Harris, Leatherwood and Smith Looking to Expand Legacy With CFP Title
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — This time last year, several Alabama football players had a decision to make.
Following a disappointing 2019 season that ended with a win over Michigan in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl, a fairly sizable group of Crimson Tide juniors had one future-determining quandary to evaluate and decide:
Should I stay or should I go?
For players like wide receivers Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III, the decision seemed like a relatively easy one. Following junior seasons that had them widely regarded as the best wide receiver duo in college football, the pair’s NFL draft stock was at its peak. The same could be said for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, defensive back Xavier McKinney and offensive lineman Jedrick Wills Jr.
For all five players, no one can blame them for their decision. During their three years with the Crimson Tide, all had done their jobs admirably and progressed to the NFL at the moment that provided them with the most opportunity. Of the five players, Jeudy, Ruggs, Tagovailoa and Wills were all drafted in the first round. For McKinney, he was drafted in the early second.
For other juniors on the team, though, there was still work to be done and upward movement to be taken advantage of.
Running back Najee Harris, offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood and wide receiver DeVonta Smith all had that same decision to make, albeit a more difficult one.
After a fairly successful 2019 campaign that saw him rush for 1,224 yards and 13 touchdowns, Harris was the biggest surprise to return for the 2020 season. Harris also confused fans on social media — while others made their announcement loudly on social media, Harris’ decision was simply a quiet return.
On Wednesday, Harris detailed that the decision to return was a group decision and that making it was not a difficult one.
“I guess you could say it worked out,” Harris said. “The decision was — of course it was coming back. We all came back. We made the decision. Really in the beginning I think we all agreed on that, like if we come back, we can't come back and walk through things and like think that since we're coming back and going to be seniors that it can come easy to us.
“So we all, I think, bought into if we're going to come back, we have to come back 100 percent and I guess show people the example of how we should practice and how we should play for the young guys coming in.”
Harris finished the season fifth in the race for the Heisman Trophy as well as taking home the Doak Walker Award, the annual honor given to the nation’s top running back. Needless to say, his decision to return has launched him up the NFL draft rankings.
For Leatherwood, his decision with the group to return wasn’t quite as puzzling. While Leatherwood proved himself as a solid blocker in the trenches through his first three years, playing in the shadow of Wills kept him out of the spotlight and lower on the draft projection boards than the lineman would have liked.
Alabama Athletics
Now, as Leatherwood and his team prepare to take on Ohio State in the 2021 CFP National Championship on Monday night in Miami, he says that he still has unfinished business — exactly what he said in January when he announced his intentions to return for his senior season.
“We've still got business to take care of,” Leatherwood said on Wednesday. “I'm a senior and I've played a lot of football here over the past four years, and [my teammates] respect what I say because they're going to take it like as-is, face value.
“This whole week I've just been telling guys to just seize every opportunity this week to get better, know what I mean? Like sacrifice and invest all your time into this one game for one week, know what I mean? Just buy into all the things we're doing, trust the process, and we're going to get the result we want.”
Like Harris, Leatherwood also took home some hardware. Along with he and his teammates taking home the Joe Moore Award for the best offensive line unit in the country, Leatherwood also earned himself the Outland Trophy — the award given to the best interior lineman in college football.
As for Smith and if his decision to return paid off? Well, his accolades this season speak for themselves. After working alongside a stacked wide receiver core over the last two seasons with Jeudy, Ruggs, Jaylen Waddle and John Metchie, Smith finally found his moment to shine.
That moment to shine just happened to be the entirety of the 2020 season.
Alabama Athletics
Along with AP Player of the Year, the Maxwell Trophy, the Biletnikoff Award and being named the Walter Camp Player of the Year, Smith also took home the Heisman Trophy — the third in Alabama program history and the first wide receiver to be issued the award since 1991.
When Smith reflects on his decision last January to return, he feels that he made the right decision.
"Just knowing that I wanted to finish things the right way," Smith said before the Rose Bowl. "I wanted to get my degree. I feel like I made the right decision, a great decision. And being around this team has opened my eyes to a lot of things and just made me very comfortable and glad that I made that decision."
Without these three players returning, Alabama would most likely not be in the position that it currently resides. After a year filled with so much adversity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Crimson Tide needed leaders to keep its team’s head held high and to persevere through the problems that were thrown its way.
An SEC title, a win in the Rose Bowl in the CFP and a berth in its eighth national championship appearance in 12 seasons later, and it’s pretty safe to say that all three of the seniors’ decision to return has paid off.
With just one more game separating them from another national title, it’s now time for the trio to make its final push towards putting an exclamation point on its final season with the Crimson Tide.
To Alabama coach Nick Saban, he recognizes the contributions that the returning trio have given to the team this year and how it has not only benefitted the team but also the individual players as well.
“I think all three of those guys have done an outstanding job for our team, not only in terms of the way they've played, the standard of excellence that they've sort of competed to, but also in their leadership and how they've impacted other players,” Saban said on Sunday morning. “I think these guys have competed at a high level. They've been great ambassadors for the University of Alabama, and I think they've made a significant impact on our team this year.
“Hard to say where we'd be without them, but we're certainly happy to have them with us.”
