Smith a ‘cut’ above

Becomes first reciever to win award since Fitzgerald in ’03

DeVonta Smith has his own special handpicked hair stylist. And if that sounds a bit snobbish or like just another diva wide receiver, well, you don’t know DeVonta Smith of Amite City, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana.

Smith, who was named Walter Camp Player of the Year on Thursday night, is amassing trophies that will end up weighing more than he did in high school.

Let’s see, the Alabama wide receiver was named the winner of the Heisman Trophy and Associated Press College Football Player of the Year. He was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, the winner of the Paul Hornung Award as college’s most versatile player, winner of the Biletnikoff Award as outstanding wide receiver and now the Walter Camp Award.

Smith pulled in a 41-yard overtime touchdown pass from Tua Tagovailoa to dramatically give Alabama the national championship against Georgia as a freshman and has gone on to make enough electrifying catches after The Catch over his career to blow out transformers across the South. In the end, Smith’s numbers and impact were simply too terrific to ignore.

That’s why he is the first wide receiver to win the Walter Camp since Larry Fitzgerald in 2003.

That’s why he is the first wide receiver to win the Heisman since Desmond Howard in 1991.

Not bad for a kid who weighed, oh, a buck forty-five as a high school sophomore seriously considering a path in basketball after breaking his collarbone in football.

“The Walter Camp Award means a lot,” Smith said. “To be nominated for an award like this with a bunch of guys who are just as good as me, if not better, it’s a blessing.”

If that sounds fairly impressive in its humility, you’re beginning to understand DeVonta Smith.

That handpicked hair stylist? Well, it’s actually the same barbershop he’s always gone to in tiny Amite, some 70 miles north of New Orleans, since he was 2.

You know what Smith calls Vincent Sanders?

“My mentor.”

We’ll let Smith tell the story. “His dad (George) and my grandfather were great friends,

Michael Woods / Associated Press Alabama’s DeVonta Smith (6) returns a punt for a touchdown against Arkansas during the first half in December in Fayetteville, Ark.

Kent Gidley / Collegiate Images via Getty Images Alabama’s DeVonta Smith leaps to make a catch at LSU in December. Smith was named the Walter Camp Player of the Year on Tuesday.