Jeremiah Smith has already broken Ohio State’s freshman record for receiving yards and is on the verge of breaking two more school records, yet he still feels like he could be doing more.
Smith became Ohio State’s all-time leader in receiving yards last week when his yardage total for the season reached 678 yards in just eight games, breaking the previous record of 648 yards by Cris Carter in 1984. He’s currently tied with Carter for the school record for receiving touchdowns by a freshman (eight) and is just two receptions behind Carter’s OSU freshman record of 41 receptions 40 years ago.
The 18-year-old first-year Buckeye is already one of the biggest stars in college football, making himself a real candidate for All-American honors as a true freshman. He was named Wednesday as a semifinalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award; he’s a nominee for the Maxwell and Biletnikoff Awards, too. It’s becoming more indisputable by the week that Smith is the best freshman receiver Ohio State has ever had.
Breaking Ohio State’s freshman receiving records was one of the goals Smith wrote down for himself when he arrived at OSU in January, so he feels blessed to have already started achieving that goal. He’s grateful for the recognition he’s received from Ohio State legends like Carter, who gave Smith a shoutout on social media after Smith broke the receiving yards at Penn State.
Salute @Jermiah_Smith1 - youre a legend already https://t.co/g5nIYnnYqi
— Cris Carter (@criscarter80) November 3, 2024
“Can’t thank him enough for that,” Smith said Wednesday.
But Smith isn’t satisfied with what he’s accomplished so far. Asked if he’s met his own expectations for his freshman season, Smith said “not really.”
“I feel like there's more stuff that I need to work on. Stuff I definitely could be better at. But you'll see it for the next eight to nine games,” Smith said Wednesday, alluding to the Buckeyes’ expectations of making the Big Ten Championship Game and making a College Football Playoff run to the national championship game.
Even as the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, Smith has met or exceeded just about everyone else’s expectations for his freshman season. If Smith was to continue his current pace for eight more games, he’d finish the season with 78 receptions for 1,356 yards and 16 touchdowns – all numbers that would rank fourth or better for a single season among receivers from all classes in Ohio State history.
That said, Smith has still made occasional freshman mistakes. One of those mistakes happened at Penn State when Smith failed to catch a perfectly thrown deep ball by Will Howard that would have been a 49-yard touchdown. As a result, the game ended up being the first of his Buckeye career in which he didn’t score a touchdown.
Jeremiah Smith nearly had one here pic.twitter.com/cOdlan4w6S
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024
Smith took full blame for that mistake on Wednesday, saying he didn’t think the ball would be thrown his way because of the safeties’ alignment on the play.
“That was on me,” Smith said. “I didn't expect Will to throw that. I thought the ball was going to Carnell and I looked up last minute, I seen the ball was coming so I had to speed up, but I dropped it.”
Smith didn’t let that mistake get into his head, however. Just four plays later, Smith made a crucial 14-yard catch to convert a 3rd-and-9, ultimately setting up a field goal that would prove to be the final points of the game in Ohio State’s 20-13 win.
Jeremiah Smith moves like this at 63, 216 as a true freshman WR pic.twitter.com/0jQ8cZV11X
— Travis May (@FF_TravisM) November 2, 2024
The veteran-like poise that Smith has shown, even in Ohio State’s biggest games of the season against Penn State and Oregon, is one of the biggest things that’s impressed Ryan Day about his star freshman.
“For a freshman in both of these two environments, he didn't flinch at all. And I think now that we're in midyear, he's become a veteran player,” Day said this week. “He's not really a freshman anymore in my eyes.”
That makes the expectations for what Smith can do for Ohio State much higher than they are for any of the Buckeyes’ other freshmen, but Smith welcomes that. And it only drives him to work harder when he doesn’t perform up to his own expectations.
“When we played Nebraska, I didn't grade out a champion, I believe, and it was just on my mind for like the whole day and (wide receivers coach Brian) Hartline seen it in my demeanor and how I was acting and stuff like that. But I just moved on and just came up this week (against Penn State) and graded out a champion,” Smith said.
“I feel like there's more stuff that I need to work on. Stuff I definitely could be better at. But you'll see it for the next eight to nine games.”– Jeremiah Smith on chasing his own expectations for himself
Now that he’s become an established star, Smith also has to deal with defenses doing more to try to take him out of games, which Ryan Day acknowledged Thursday on his radio show. But Smith also has the benefit of playing on an offense that’s loaded with elite talent, including fellow starting wide receivers Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate and star running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, and he’s loving playing alongside all of them as they chase their shared goal of winning a championship.
“Everything is special,” Smith said of Ohio State’s offense. “The receivers we have, the best two backs in the country that we have, the O-line that we have, we've got the best quarterback in the country. So it's pretty special to be in this offense, for sure, as a freshman to be out there playing.”
