The Iowa Hawkeyes had been dispatched, 35–7, and the Ohio State Buckeyes’ final duty before leaving the field was to link arms and sing. It was “Carmen Ohio” time, the traditional postgame sing-along for the team and their fans. Brian Hartline held his young daughter in his left arm and slung his right around the back of arguably the most talented player he’s ever brought to Columbus.
If you coached receivers at Ohio State, you would hold tight to Jeremiah “J.J.” Smith, too.
Hartline is the top receiver recruiter in the country. He’s mentored Marvin Harrison Jr., the No. 4 pick in the NFL draft last spring. He coached current NFL standouts Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Chris Olave. Ohio State senior Emeka Egbuka has caught more than 150 college passes and should be one of the first receivers selected in the 2025 draft.
But Smith? He’s something different—even moreso than Harrison, whose college career did not launch with anything near this velocity. Five games into his time as a Buckeye, the precocious freshman from Miami is on his own level.
The words used by his teammates to describe the plays he’s making:
“Ridiculous,” offensive lineman Donovan Jackson says.
“Stupid,” quarterback Will Howard says.
Heading into No. 2 Ohio State’s road showdown with the No. 3 Oregon Ducks on Saturday, Smith is a potential difference maker in the game. He is second in the Big Ten in touchdown catches with six and leads the Buckeyes with seven total TDs. Among players with more than 20 receptions, he leads the league in yards per catch at 19.7. He also leads the free world in gasp-inducing, one-handed catches, having made three of them in the last two games.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Jackson said. “You see guys go up with one hand and it’s like, ‘Oh man, he’s not going [to be] coming down with it.’ With J.J. it’s like, ‘He’s probably coming down with it.’ ”
College football currently has an abundance of freshman wide receivers who are making dazzling plays: Ryan Wingo of the Texas Longhorns; Nick Marsh of the Michigan State Spartans; Bryant Wesco Jr. of the Clemson Tigers; Malcolm Simmons and Cam Coleman of the Auburn Tigers. But the two who have leaped to the forefront of electrifying receivers, regardless of age, are the Alabama Crimson Tide’s Ryan Williams and Ohio State’s Smith.
Williams also has six TD catches on the season, on only 19 receptions, and is averaging 28.6 yards per catch. He gained national fame for his balletic, 75-yard catch-and-run touchdown for the winning points in Alabama’s victory over Georgia on Sept. 28. At age 17—a fact repeated ad nauseam on broadcasts of Crimson Tide games—his upside is incredible.
But Smith is even more ready-made to dominate right now than Williams. He is a physical specimen—6' 3" and 215 pounds, weighing 10 pounds more right now than Harrison did as a junior last year at Ohio State. The one-handed touchdown grab against Iowa came with Smith holding off Hawkeyes cornerback Deshaun Lee with his left hand, then shoving him aside like a child. Lee is a good player on a good defense, but he was outweighed by 28 pounds in that matchup.
Smith arrived in college with an abundance of hype—he was the No. 1 recruit in the country, according to 247Sports, with the Buckeyes holding off every major program in the state of Florida to land him. But not every touted freshman is ready to get on the field immediately—sometimes they aren’t ready physically, and sometimes the first taste of not being the best player on the field can rock them mentally. The competition can be especially difficult as a receiver at Ohio State, where the receiver position is so stacked that simply breaking into the two-deep is a challenge.
Smith was different. He enrolled early last January, and it didn’t take long for stories to emerge from Columbus about how good he was.
“Overall maturity,” head coach Ryan Day said, explaining what put Smith in position to be an instant-impact player. “His physical maturity, he’s big and strong, so that’s important. The next thing is his emotional maturity—this is somebody who practices hard every day, he’s avoided distractions up to this point, he stays disciplined. He’s got a great coach in Brian Hartline and a great mentor in Emeka Egbuka, but he also came in with a great work ethic and a great mindset.”
Smith had his freshman moment in the second quarter against Iowa—he caught a slant and darted for 23 yards, but backside pursuit from All-American linebacker Jay Higgins jarred the ball loose. The Hawkeyes recovered the fumble—one of two Ohio State turnovers in the quarter—and the Buckeyes went into halftime with an underwhelming 7–0 lead. For the first time this season, there might have been a ripple of unease in Ohio Stadium regarding a team expected to win the national title.
There are coaches who would have tilted the game plan more toward their veterans at that point, but Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly are not two of them. On the first possession of the second half, facing a third-and-6 from their own 43-yard line, Howard loaded up and fired deep down the right side for Smith. He simply ran away from double coverage to haul in the ball for a 53-yard gain.
The next play was his one-handed catch on a fade route for the score. After that, the rest of the game was a low-stress victory for Ohio State.
“He’s got a lot of confidence and we have a lot of confidence in him, so we went right back to him,” Day said.
The Buckeyes figure to keep going to Smith on Saturday in Autzen Stadium against an Oregon defense that ranks seventh nationally in pass efficiency allowed. He’s caught at least one pass of 25 yards or longer in every game, a stretch-the-field weapon in a game that could be decided by big plays.
Oregon certainly recognizes the challenge of covering Smith. And the Buckeyes recognize the privilege of having him on their team.
Before “Carmen Ohio,” fans streamed up to Smith on the field to get autographs and pictures. He granted all requests, then sang the song, slapped fives with Hartline’s kids and headed to the locker room. There've been a lot of stars at Ohio State, but Jeremiah Smith has a chance to make the short list of all-time Buckeyes over the next 2½ seasons.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Meet Jeremiah Smith, the Freshman Ohio State WR Making a Major Impact.