With Alabama facing a third-and-long in the second quarter of the Peach Bowl against Washington on Saturday, Tide quarterback Jalen Hurts rolled out and needed help.
Gehrig Dieter went from SMU to Bowling Green to catching passes for Bama in the Playoff
He’s taken a winding road to the Peach Bowl.
Grad transfer receiver Gehrig Dieter snuck away from UW cornerback Kevin King, made himself available to Hurts, and squeezed his pass for a drive-extending first down.
Dieter’s one of the Playoff’s most interesting roster stories. He started his college career at SMU in 2012, after he committed as a three-star recruit. He was ranked the No. 13 player in Indiana and the No. 101 receiver in the country, according to the 247Sports Composite. He had one reported Power 5 offer, to Kansas.
Things didn’t work out for Dieter at SMU. He played sparingly, then transferred to Bowling Green after the 2012 season. Dieter sat out 2013 under NCAA rules, and when he was eligible to play in 2014, he played in eight games and had 35 catches for 460 yards and one touchdown. He was a decent player on an 8-6 MAC team.
Everything changed in 2015 — Dieter’s fourth year in college, but his third by eligibility. He emerged as a key cog in Dino Babers’ pass-happy Bowling Green offense, connecting with quarterback Matt Johnson to help drive one of the country’s best aerial attacks. Dieter caught 94 balls for 1,033 yards and had 10 touchdowns. His numbers dwarfed what he’d done in the ‘12, ‘13, and ‘14 seasons combined.
Dieter graduated from Bowling Green with a year of football eligibility remaining and the right to play it without sitting out. Alabama wanted him, and Dieter went from the MAC to Tuscaloosa. There, he’s settled into a niche as Bama’s slot man, playing between speedsters Calvin Ridley and ArDarius Stewart and giving the Tide a reliable option when they need him.
That’s not so often, but it doesn’t mean he’s unimportant. Dieter only had 14 catches and 204 yards entering the Playoff, but four of those went for touchdowns, and he’s managed to make 10 starts for the best team in the land. It’s not a bad last chapter to a college football story that started a long way away from the Playoff.
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