Carnell Tate, Ohio State’s other 5-star WR, is OK doing the dirty work — but don’t take him for granted

ATLANTA — If you’ve watched any Ohio State football this fall, you know about phenom Jeremiah Smith and you’re probably familiar with his running mate Emeka Egbuka. 

The 1-2 punch at wide receiver makes the Buckeyes difficult on most days, impossible on others. But think about this: If you would have told any Texas Longhorns fan that Smith would finish the Cotton Bowl against them with one catch for three yards, and Egbuka would have five for 51 yards, they would take that in a heartbeat and booked their exorbitantly expensive trip here to Atlanta. 

But the problem with attempting to defend Ohio State is they have another receiving threat who, at least in quarterback Will Howard’s opinion, could be a No. 1 wide receiver at most schools in the country: Carnell Tate. Against the Longhorns, Tate had seven catches for 87 yards, the second-most receiving yards a vaunted Texas secondary had allowed to a wideout in its prior seven games. 

“I always knew the ball could come my way, but sometimes it comes my way more than others,” Tate told CBS Sports this weekend, ahead of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. “That game, it came my way more than it usually does. I just feel honored to put the team on my back and help the team come here.” 

Tate is the engine of the Ohio State receiver corps. He’s content to do dirty work and excel with low volume and without the ball in his hands. Tate has a 78% catch rate, with 50 receptions on 64 targets throughout the season for 698 yards. He’s the third option for the Buckeyes as far as raw production is concerned, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he’s just a bit player on this team as he does hard to quantify things well. 

“I think to be a great receiver, you have to be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there with separation and catch the ball, and Carnell is there every single time,” offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said. 

Kelly continued with what makes Tate special, the devil being in the details. 

“If Carnell is supposed to be 18 yards on the left hash, when you look up when the quarterback gets to a second read, Carnell is at 18 yards at the left hash. There’s just a consistency to Carnell. He’s an unbelievable ball tracker, so there’s really a huge catch radius in terms of what he does, and there’s a toughness to him. A lot of our blocking schemes he’s our flanker or our z. He’s involved in a lot of digging out safeties, digging out linebackers, and Carnell, even though he doesn’t look like it, he’s probably our most physical blocker out there. So there’s just a consistency to CT that I think sometimes you take for granted, but he’s always where he’s supposed to be, and gets the job done.”

Tate was as touted as anyone in Ohio State’s receiver room when he committed in the summer of 2022 as a five-star prospect who would keep the run of incredible players at the position going. Tate ranked as the No. 22 player and No. 3 wide receiver in the Class of 2023. He played sparingly as a freshman, and as a sophomore stepped in to round out the receiving threats Ohio State has. 

“I looked up to him coming in,” Smith said. “He was a grade above me. Playing with him at South Florida Express [7on7 team], just being on his team in college is something that I dreamed of for sure.” 

Smith says that even though they’re much different sizes (Smith outweighs Tate by 20 pounds) he still tries to borrow pieces of his game, especially his smooth route running. 

The fact about the current climate in college football is that a player like Tate could leave at any time for greener pastures in the transfer portal, and many may not have stuck around when a player like Smith joined the roster and immediately established himself as the team’s true No. 1 threat, but Tate was motivated to stay. It’s a similar story to Egbuka returning for his senior year to take a back seat to Smith, but their individual hard work has has helped the Buckeyes get 60 minutes from their ultimate team goal. 

“I stuck around because Ohio State is where I wanted to be ultimately,” Tate told CBS sports. “I always had a dream of coming here and I’m living my dream right now.”