Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith is one of the most ballyhooed freshmen in recent college football history. Less than a year into his Buckeyes career, Smith is already in line to start for a team with national championship upside.
It’s also the same Ohio State team that has produced four first-round wide receivers since 2022. To say that Smith is entering his college career with huge expectations would be an understatement.
Smith is already handling the pressure like a veteran.
“I know it’s a big expectation for me because I’m the No. 1 player in the country coming in and all the hype around me,” Smith said. “So, I mean, I just try to block out all that stuff and just focus on the main thing, just the team and our receiver room and the locker room. And just the first game comes, and if I don’t exceed the expectations that y’all have for me, I mean, I don’t really care. I just want to go out there and win the game.”
It’s hard not to hype up Smith. He signed with the Buckeyes as the top overall prospect in the 2024 class. He is the highest-ranked wide receiver in 247Sports history and is one of just 12 players to ever receive a grade of at least 101 (the scale typically goes to 100).
So, he has a chance to be really good. How good? The name Julio Jones, who had 924 yards and four touchdowns receiving as a freshman at Alabama in 2008, has most often been used in association with Smith.
But for all its success producing wide receivers, Ohio State rarely fields any Year 1 breakouts. That means Smith has a chance to enter some pretty rarified air.
Not many freshman Buckeyes receivers have reached 500 yards in a single season. Program legend Cris Carter had 648 in 1984, and few have come close to matching him since.
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