TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- It’s a matter of when, not if, for Jaylen Waddle.

Alabama has scored 24 passing touchdowns through the first five games of the season, and the sophomore wideout hasn’t been on the receiving end of any of them. Fresh off a game where Crimson Tide receivers scored six times -- five if you’re DeVonta Smith -- Waddle is hungrier than ever.

“You could say that,” Waddle said Saturday. “But when it comes, it comes. You can’t rush it.”

Alabama’s top-three receivers in Smith, Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III have crossed the goal line a combined 14 times this fall with Smith leading the way with eight touchdowns. The trio also ranks individually among the top seven players in the SEC in receiving yards after five games.

After finishing seventh in the league with 848 receiving yards last year as a freshman, Waddle currently sits in 26th place with 197 yards on 12 receptions, 90 of which came in the first game.

“We all know that any time it can be anybody,” Smith said, “so him right now, he’s doing a good job of knowing my time is going to come, just be patient. He looks at it like, ‘It’s going to come when it’s meant for me.’ He understands that, and he handles it well.”

Head coach Nick Saban added: “I certainly think that Jaylen has a lot of ability. We want him to be a very positive contributor. We want him to play with great consistency in performance, and we’re going to continue to work with him so that maybe he can do that a little better. But we have a lot of confidence in him and a lot of ways to do a lot of good things for us.”

Alabama wide receiver Jaylen Waddle

Waddle has also been held in check on special teams, although he almost broke free a couple of times last weekend. He ranks second in the SEC with 17.38 yards per punt return on eight attempts, but that number could have been nine had he not muffed the first punt kicked his way.

“That first one, it was low, line drive,” Waddle said. “I like those kicks, and I think I got too excited and tried to run before I actually caught it. That was a tough one, that was a tough one, but I’ve got to learn from it. I’m definitely going to watch it over and over today and see where I went wrong.”

Waddle would have scored this past Saturday against Ole Miss had a holding penalty not wiped out the touchdown. But he will have to wait until at least Week 7 to break this “sophomore slump.”

Is it really that, though? Waddle is the No. 4 receiver on the Crimson Tide’s roster and sees a lot of the field. It’s just that the three players ahead of him have been producing at a rocket pace.

And a bit of a slow start isn’t new territory for the Houston, Texas, native. A Freshman All-American a year ago, it took Waddle five weeks to score his first touchdown in an Alabama uniform, which he did three times against Louisiana-Lafayette (2 receiving, 1 punt return). Because of that, as well as the success of wide receivers around him, Waddle has maintained a positive attitude.

“It’s been good because I feel like he understands because last year, he got more into it,” Smith said. “But at the beginning, it was kind of like this at the beginning. I think he understands it, and he knows his time is going to come. He saw that last year -- at any moment, anything can happen, and now it’s your time. I feel like he understands that, and he’s handling it well.”

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).