It will take a few more funerals – either that or my own -- before I live down something I wrote in 1974, a mere 45 years ago. In a routine preseason Alabama football outlook, I averred that the Crimson Tide would not be able to replace wide receiver Wayne Wheeler.

In 1973, Wheeler had led Alabama in receiving with 19 catches for 530 yards and 3 touchdowns. Impressive, huh? That was the third year of Alabama in the wishbone offense, which ground out 4,027 rushing yards to only 1,261 yards passing.

In my defense, I had never seen Bama freshman Ozzie Newsome. Newsome would start every game except the first one in his career, 1974-77. As for that first one, at Maryland, he went into the game on the second possession and never gave up the spot, save for the 1976 season when he moved to tight end, giving Bama two receiving threats with Thad Flanagan taking over at split end.

Newsome, even with relatively modest statistics (four-year total of 102 receptions, 2,070 yards, 16 TDs), was an All-America and is in the College Football Hall of Fame. He was selected Alabama's Player of the Decade for the 1970s.

I have friends – friends, mind you! – who will not let me forget.

In the wishbone years (1971-82) there usually was just one wide receiver getting most of the work, the last couple of years an exception with Joey Jones and Jesse Bendross sharing duties.

There have been other years when Alabama relied primarily on one wide receiver, including the early years of the Nick Saban Era when Julio Jones was the main man. But even with Jones and later Amari Cooper being special talents, there were the likes of Kevin Norwood and Marquis Maze in the picture.

Following Cooper, Calvin Ridley led the Tide in receiving in three consecutive years, but ArDarius Stewart was also a major threat.

DeVonta Smith is part of Alabama football lore for national championship catch

Although they were not as prominent as Ridley in 2017, the Alabama offense changed when the trio of Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III, and DeVonta Smith joined the Tide that season. (Smith cemented his name in Crimson Tide lore when he hauled in a 41-yard pass from Tua Tagovailoa in overtime to give Alabama a 26-23 win over Georgia in the College Football Playoff national championship game.)

For the past two years, joined by Jaylen Waddle in 2018, the receiving troika has been extraordinary. Last year two of them had over 1,000 yards receiving – Smith (1,256 with 14 touchdowns) and Jeudy (1,163 with 10 TDs).

The only surprise following the season is that only Smith of the three who entered Bama as freshmen in 2017 did not elect to enter this year’s NFL draft.

Because of the return of Smith and Waddle, Alabama is ahead of the game with a receiving corps. The question is who will be the third receiver. Maybe a returning player like John Metchie or Tyrell Shavers or even all-around player Slade Bolden. Or will it be a newcomer? Three are in the incoming group of freshmen – Javon Baker, Traeshon Holden, and Thaiu Jones-Bell.

For the foreseeable future, it could be that Alabama’s new offensive normal is that three-pronged wide receiver corps.

It reminded me of the rare great twosomes of the past. Just before the Tide switched to the wishbone in 1971, quarterback Scott Hunter had outside threats in George Ranager and David Bailey.

In the mid-1960s, and particularly with Ken Stabler quarterbacking in 1966, the Tide had Ray Perkins and Dennis Homan. I'm still waiting to see a wide receiver who played with more effort than Perkins.

Want to take it back a bit further?

In the 1930s, Dixie Howell had one of the all-time greats in college or NFL history in Don Hutson as a target. When the NCAA commissioned four paintings to represent the first 100 years of college football in 1969, one of them was Howell passing to Hutson. And trailing Hutson in the background of the painting is “the other end,” as he came to be known, Paul Bryant.

Bryant worked his way out of the Hutson shadow when he became a coach.