I was channel flipping and stopped for awhile on the Princess Bride and it really got me thinking...
*WARNING MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FOR A MOVIE THAT WAS RELEASED IN 1987*
Remember in Princess Bride when Inigo Monotya has the sword fight with the Man in Black. He figures it's too easy and no fun to use his dominant right hand so he fights with his left. It's only when he realizes that the Man in Black is an exceptional swordsman and that his life is in serious danger that he switches over to his right hand. Unfortunately, for him the Man in Black had the same idea and also switches over to his right hand.
But here's my point. Ohio State's offense has been playing with its right hand tied behind its back this season. And by that I mean they're underutilizing Jeremiah Smith. We're in the playoffs. There's no more margin of error. We got a tough draw and every opponent we'll face is a really high level team. Many of them aren't left handed either.
Jeremiah Smith is the best receiver in college football. I don't care what the Biletnikoff says. He's the best. He's freakishly fast and athletic. He's incredibly strong and physical for a freshman. He's really dangerous in the open field. He's the best freshman wide receiver in college football at least since Julio Jones in 2008, maybe longer.
He's had an outstanding season for a freshman wide receiver. He's got 57 catches for 934 yards. 10 touchdown catches. Another touchdown on the ground. But here's the thing… He's only getting targeted 6.5 times a game. That's only 78 targets the whole season. He's only carried the football 4 times. He has 11.8 yards per carry and a 19 yard touchdown run.
He's the best player we have on offense. If we're going to beat Tennessee and go on a run, he needs to be the focal point of the offense. He should be targeted 10-12 times a game and he should carry the ball on a jet sweep once or twice a game. He should especially be the focal point in the redzone, where we've struggled to run the football in recent weeks, and where his size and athleticism is a matchup nightmare for opposing offenses.
When we beat Oregon a decade ago to win the national championship, Ezekiel Elliott had 36 carries in that game. When you have great skill players, sometimes you just need to give them the football over and over and over again until the other team proves they can stop it.
But will Ryan Day and Chip Kelly do that? His total target numbers this season suggest they might not. That they might just run their standard offense and not build a gameplan around him. But one sign that they will is that Jeremiah Smith's season high in targets came against Oregon. He was targeted 13 times. Maybe that suggest the coaching staff understands how valuable he can be in big games?
