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COLUMBUS, Ohio — On a field full of future high NFL draft picks on a frigid winter night, the 19-year old freshman playing in his first playoff game looked the best of all of them.
Watching Ohio State freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith race past Tennessee defenders trying to stop him in one-on-one coverage was perhaps the most impressive performance of any freshman this season. Every attempt a really good Tennessee defense had at trying to slow him down was completely futile.
Smith, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound athletic freak, was simply better than everything Tennessee tried to throw at him. He was faster, stronger, had better footwork, better hands. He finished with six catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns, the first freshman receiver since Clemson’s Justyn Ross back in 2018 to have more than 100 yards and two touchdowns in a College Football Playoff game. Every time Ohio State quarterback Will Howard looked Smith’s way, you expected him to deliver magic and he did.
Tennessee’s only chance at stopping him was interfering with him which worked on what should have been Smith’s third touchdown of the night. Otherwise Smith effortlessly blew past All-American cornerback Jermod McCoy for a touchdown after the Vols defender led his team with four interceptions and nine pass breakups this season. Smith later posted a message on X making it clear he thought he bested McCoy.
“He’s a dude, man,” Howard said. “I think he’s the best receiver in the country.”
He certainly looked the part Saturday night in No. 8 Ohio State’s blowout 42-17 win over No. 9 Tennessee. Smith’s dominant performance is why he was ranked 247Sports’ No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2024 — the first time a receiver ever accomplished that — and the center of a high-stakes recruiting battle between the Buckeyes and in-state schools Miami, Florida and Florida State. The hype surrounding Smith has been off-the-charts, seemingly impossible to live up to, and yet you could argue he’s somehow even exceeded expectations.
In the NFL receiver factory that is Ohio State, which has produced stars like Garrett Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr., Smith looks like he’ll be the best and he’s still only 19-years old. Outside of Sammy Watkins’ absurd 2011 season where he had 82 catches for 1,219 yards and 12 touchdowns at Clemson, Smith has put together the best freshman receiver season in history. He’s now up to 63 catches for 1,037 yards and 12 touchdowns with at least one more opportunity to add to those numbers after Saturday’s win.
After the game, Ohio State coach Ryan Day told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt that “nobody’s worked harder the last three weeks” following the Buckeyes’ stunning 13-10 home loss to Michigan.
“He did not like losing that game, I’m just telling ya,” Day said. “He came out with an attitude today with a toughness and physicality about him.”
It’s not difficult to understand why Smith may have been frustrated after that loss. The guy who annihilated Tennessee on Saturday night? He wasn’t targeted the last 25 minutes of the Michigan game, a decision that was confounding in the moment and outright egregious the more time passes. Ohio State couldn’t scheme Smith open in the second half and was baited into relying on an ineffective running game that couldn’t manage much against the Wolverines.
This time Ohio State enforced its will on Tennessee and got Smith a touchdown on the first drive of the game on a beautiful pass from Howard that landed precisely where it had to. That early success gave Howard plenty of confidence which continued throughout the night in a terrific 24 of 29 for 311 yards, two touchdowns and one interception performance.
When you have a freak like Smith out there, who has an uncanny ability to come up with tough catches, it puts your quarterback at ease. It also demands so much defensive attention that it makes life easier for Emeka Egbuka, TreVeyon Henderson and the rest of the Buckeyes’ star-studded offensive cast. It’d be too simplistic to say Smith is what makes this Ohio State offense go, but he certainly is the catalyst for it maximizing its output.
Ohio State needs to remember that ahead of a rematch against No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Ohio State came up just short against the Ducks on Oct. 12, a classic 32-31 nailbiter that came down to a controversial finish and the Buckeyes running out of time on Oregon’s 26-yard line.
“The way that one ended doesn’t sit right with me,” Howard said. “It still doesn’t. It still bugs me. And I’m just thankful for the opportunity that we get another crack at them.”
The Buckeyes fed Smith nine catches for 100 yards and a touchdown in that losing effort. In the rematch, perhaps a 10th catch could be the difference. Ohio State is favored by 1.5 points and has the second-best odds to win the national championship, behind only Texas.
With Smith running wild and Howard putting his passes right on the money, Ohio State looked like a completely different team inside Ohio Stadium than the one that evoked such agita after a fourth consecutive loss to Michigan three weeks earlier. The bigger the role Smith plays moving forward, the better the chance this team has at getting the best of Oregon in Round 2 and running the table to Atlanta for a shot at a national championship.
MORE: The big-game monkey is off Ryan Day’s back
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