Alabama Football: Crimson Tide dominates national player awards

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Alabama Football: Thursday night wrapped up the national, player’s awards for the 2020 season. The Crimson Tide hit paydirt again.

Player awards are viewed as cake icing by Alabama football players. Every season, achieved or not,  the ultimate award for Crimson Tide players is a team award; the National Championship. Under Nick Saban, there has been an abundance of both National Championships and Player of the Year awards.

Going into the 2020 season, the record years for Alabama Crimson Tide player awards were 2015 and 2016. In each of those seasons, three Crimson Tide players won a total of six Player of the Year awards. In 2015, Derrick Henry led the Crimson Tide, winning the Heisman, the Maxwell Trophy, the Doak Walker Award and the Walter Camp Award. In the 2016 season, Jonathan Allen was the big award winner, earning the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Lombardi Award, the Bronko Nagurski Award and Ted Hendricks Award.

Also winning during that two-year period; Ryan Kelly won the Remington Award (2015), Reuben Foster won the Butkus Award (2016) and Cam Robinson won the Outland Trophy for the 2016 season. As a group, the Alabama football offensive line won the Joe Moore Award in 2015.

2020 Alabama Football Player and Coach Awards

  • Heisman Trophy – DeVonta Smith
  • Maxwell Award – DeVonta Smith
  • AP Player of the Year – DeVonta Smith
  • Walter Camp Player of the Year – DeVonta Smith
  • Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award – Mac Jones
  • Davey O’Brien Award – Mac Jones
  • Joe Moore Award – Alabama Crimson Tide Offensive Line
  • Paul Hornung Award – DeVonta Smith
  • Outland Trophy – Alex Leatherwood
  • Fred Biletnikoff Award – DeVonta Smith
  • Rimington Trophy – Landon Dickerson
  • Doak Walker Award – Najee Harris
  • Broyles Award – Steve Sarkisian

What an incredible awards bonanza for the Alabama Crimson Tide football program. The awards don’t directly transfer to points in the National Championship game but they do fuel Crimson Tide momentum heading into the national title game. Congratulations to all the award winners and the entire Alabama football coaching and support staff.

Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News gets the cleverness award for the tweet below.

With the Walter Camp All-American team announced Thursday night, the Crimson Tide gained five unanimous selections. The five players, Najee Harris, DeVonta Smith, Alex Leatherwood, Landon Dickerson and Patrick Surtain II tied the team record for the most ever, set by Oklahoma in 2003.

The Ohio State football team might have watched the awards show Thursday night. The Buckeyes coaching staff likely did not. Any coaches who did may have a problem sleeping between now and Monday night.