One night in Baton Rouge sent the kid from Amite, Louisiana all the way to Times Square.

When DeVonta Smith made a late-season surge two seasons ago to win the Heisman Trophy, there was no more significant moment in the Alabama wide receiver’s journey than an eight-catch, 231-yard explosion in Tiger Stadium.

The Tide’s most recent trip to LSU — a 55-17 win in December 2020 — will be remembered for the play of Smith, who caught touchdowns of 65, 61 and 20 yards in the second quarter alone. On an undefeated team jam-packed with All-Americans that won a national championship, Smith was the most unstoppable of them all.

Alabama will return to Baton Rouge this Saturday night with a Heisman-winning quarterback and arguably college football’s best player in Bryce Young, but the Tide will be playing without the surefire weapon at wide receiver that it once had in Smith.

Through eight games, Alabama’s leading receiver is Ja’Corey Brooks with 376 yards. That is the fewest yards the Tide’s leading receiver has amassed entering the ninth game of any season since 2013, when Kevin Norwood led the team with 348 — and Norwood hit that mark while appearing in only seven games.

Alabama is spreading the ball out this season — five players have at least 20 catches and 250 receiving yards — but that could be more the product of not having an elite wide receiver it must keep on the field every play. That was the case two seasons ago with Smith, who entered the LSU game with more than 1,000 receiving yards, and in 2014, when Amari Cooper topped 1,100 by the ninth contest.

Cooper dealt with injuries in 2013 as Alabama instead leaned on Norwood, DeAndrew White and Christion Jones, ending the season with two losses and a Sugar Bowl defeat to Oklahoma. Those were the waning days of a college football era where defense and a ball-control offense could win championships; now quarterbacks and matchup-beating pass catchers dominate.

Since 2018, those are how Alabama’s teams have been designed, including last season’s.

“We had the kind of team where we had a really good quarterback and we wanted to have skill guys that they couldn’t guard,” Nick Saban said earlier this year. “So we had two that were really, really good — [John] Metchie and Jamo [Jameson Williams]. And they both got hurt.”

Since Metchie and Williams suffered ACL injuries last postseason, Alabama has not had a wide receiver that opposing teams could not guard on a game-to-game basis.

Jermaine Burton and Tyler Harrell were Alabama’s attempts at recapturing the success it had in drawing Williams from the transfer portal. Burton’s production has been spotty. The junior has 20 catches for 306 yards and three touchdowns, with two of those scores and nine of those catches coming in gimme games against Utah State and Vanderbilt.

Harrell was a summer arrival from Louisville billed to have top-end speed. Saban in August revealed Harrell had a foot sprain but termed him day-to-day when he had yet to make his debut in mid-September. By mid-October, Harrell had yet to see the field and Saban said he would not discuss the details of his injury. Harrell was available to play against Tennessee but did not play until the closing minutes of a blowout win over Mississippi State.

With four games remaining in the regular season and the SEC West on the line the next two weeks, the time remaining for the two transfers to contribute is shrinking. What the future beyond this season holds for Burton, in his third season, and Harrell, in his fifth year, remains to be seen.

Alabama dipped into the transfer portal in part because there were not obvious home-grown solutions at wide receiver this past offseason. After the Tide struck gold in recruiting at wide receiver in 2015 (Calvin Ridley), 2017 (DeVonta Smith, Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs), 2018 (Jaylen Waddle) and 2019 (John Metchie), the past three classes have not produced as immediate results.

The 2020 class produced three wide receivers in Thaiu Jones-Bell, Javon Baker and Traeshon Holden. In three seasons, Jones-Bell has four catches while Baker had little impact before transferring to UCF. After two mostly quiet seasons, Holden gained momentum this August to earn a starting role but has only totaled six catches for 52 yards over the past four SEC games.

Saban, though, provided a disclaimer Wednesday to the offense’s performance since Bryce Young’s shoulder injury in early October.

“I don’t think it’s really fair to assess anything that the offense has done, because we’ve been a little bit left-handed,” he said. “The continuity of what you do and how you build continuity and timing has been a little bit distorted.”

The 2021 class brought aboard higher-rated recruits in Agiye Hall, Ja’Corey Brooks and JoJo Earle — all rated within the top 50 of 247 Sports’ industry composite — plus Christian Leary. Of that group, Brooks has been the most statistically productive. But what seemed like a breakout moment in last November’s Iron Bowl has not yet fully materialized for Brooks, who has one game this season with more than 80 yards.

“The guy’s a real competitor,” Saban said Wednesday of Brooks. “I mean, he plays great for us on special teams. I don’t care what you ask him to do, what role he plays on whatever team — he does it fast, he does it hard. He prepares well. I think he’s attaching himself to the right things, and I think that’s sort of showing in his production and performance and the consistency that he’s played with.”

Earle has dealt with two injuries — a knee last season and a foot this preseason — while Leary has little role in the offense this season after seeing spot duty last year as a running back. Hall, perhaps the most talented of the four members of the class, transferred to Texas after a tumultuous freshman season.

Alabama’s most recent signing class (2022) added five receivers to the room, including multiple with high-end speed, but only Kobe Prentice has seen significant playing time this season. He has 28 catches for 279 yards and a touchdown. Isaiah Bond has nine catches, Kendrick Law has two and neither Aaron Anderson nor Shazz Preston has caught a pass yet.

The Tide has leaned on running back Jahmyr Gibbs to provide an explosive element to its passing game, and tight end Cameron Latu, but neither can challenge defenses in the deep part of the field the way Williams and Metchie did last season and others before them.

“We’ve been a little bit out of sorts,” Saban said about the offense without Young practicing fully. “I really challenged the players to be able to do things better, whether it’s run the ball, run routes better, make more explosive plays — whatever it might be — but I think it’s a little bit unfair to judge anything that’s happened in the last couple weeks.”

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.