When Alabama Needed Its No. 3 Receiver, John Metchie Answered the Call
Last season, Alabama football had three primary wide receivers in Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and DeVonta Smith. While Jaylen Waddle saw some action at the position, most often subbing in for Smith, the primary trio remained consistently the same throughout the season.
In 2020, the position for the No. 3 receiver was an often-discussed topic among both media and fans alike. With Jeudy and Ruggs both off to the NFL, Smith and Waddle naturally slid in to fill their spots. The question remained, though: who would take over the position as the third receiver?
On Saturday, the Crimson Tide got its answer.
On just Alabama's third offensive play of the game in Saturday's contest against No. 13 Texas A&M, redshirt-junior quarterback Mac Jones connected to sophomore wide receiver John Metchie III for a 78-yard touchdown to give the Crimson Tide the early lead.
Unbeknownst to the 19,424 fans in attendance, Metchie was just getting started.
Jones attempted to connect with Metchie for another deep touchdown later in the game, but overthrew his target. That being said, Jones says that their performance on Saturday relied on their chemistry that they've developed over the years.
“The first touchdown — third and long, we don’t want to be in that situation so we gotta get better on first and second down — Metchie had a big post and he made a big play and finished the play and scored in the end zone which he’s supposed to do,” Jones said. “I think he had a good game today. Some missed opportunities with me and stuff — maybe that double-move I had to him but I overthrew him — but he played really well and he’s going to continue to play well because he works really hard in practice and we have that chemistry that’s built up from years past.”
Metchie's second touchdown came as a bookend. He and Jones connected for the first points of the game for Alabama, so it was fitting that the also connected for the last. With just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Jones threw another deep ball to Metchie for a 63-yard touchdown connection.
On the day, Metchie accounted for 181 yards on five receptions and two touchdowns in what sports writers will recall as his breakout performance after the season comes to a close.
After the game, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said that he and his team have always considered Metchie to be a consistent threat at the position.
“We’ve always thought Johnathan is a real threat,” Saban said. “He got the opportunities today. I think you’ll see different guys out of this core of guys have those opportunities on various days but he had one other one that we overthrew that would have been another big play so a very capable guy.
"He’s worked very hard and I think this is something that’s gonna really help his confidence and also something that will help us develop confidence in him with his teammates which we need as many weapons as we possibly can so I was excited to see him have a great day today and I think that’ll be very good for him from a future standpoint and very good for us.”
The combined efforts of Metchie, Waddle, Smith and Jones helped propel the Alabama offense for 450 yards over a winded Aggie defense.
Earlier in the week, Waddle discussed Metchie in one of the conversations with the media, stating that he felt that Metchie was deceptively fast and could potentially give the Texas A&M defense trouble.
Saturday after the game, the junior wideout reiterated his point.
“Oh yeah definitely,” Waddle said. “I had the energy about that earlier this week. I told y’all about [Metchie's] sneaky speed. He got to showcase that today.”
After a 2-0 start for the Crimson Tide that has seen the offense dominate both the Missouri Tigers and Texas A&M, one thing has become abundantly clear:
The third member of the Alabama wide receiver core has been found, and his name is John Metchie.
