Not surprisingly, No. 2 Alabama had no problem with Southern Miss in Week 4, winning 49-7. Not much of a story there -- except for how good Alabama's wide receivers are. Yes, it's widely known that Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III are first-round caliber talents, but a wild anecdote from the Southern Miss game shows just how complete they are (and how overmatched Southern Miss was).
A brief clip from WHNT-TV reporter Olivia Whitmire showed Jeudy and fellow wideout DeVonta Smith playing rock, paper, scissors before a play. As explained afterward by Ruggs, the game is meant to determine who's going to run the route most likely to catch a touchdown.
I thought I saw @jerryjeudy and @DeVontaSmith_6 playing rock paper scissors when I was recording this
— Olivia Whitmire WHNT (@omwhitmireTV) September 23, 2019
Turns out I was right and looks like Jerry won pic.twitter.com/zAJ09BoO5v
"That's funny," Ruggs said, "because we have playmakers everywhere and at any moment. Any guy can make a play, so once they got the play call, they knew, 'Oh, this is the route that is going to catch the touchdown.' So they rock, paper, scissored over who was going to run that route.
"We all know every position, so at any moment, we can move around. I can go in the slot or go outside or something like that. So if they see a big route coming, everybody wants it so they just did rock, paper, scissors to see who was going to run it."
You can watch Ruggs' full interview below:
Granted, it's not something Alabama's wideouts do every time and there are moments when they play more by the book, but the fact that they've earned the trust of the coaching staff to be that open about it says something. And what it says is that Alabama's pass-catchers are next-level good.