Jeremiah Smith, an evolving superstar in three parts: Stay, work, own it
"I’m going to push myself to exhaustion and never make that play happen again."
COLUMBUS — Jeremiah Smith is fifth in touchdowns, seventh in receptions and eighth in receiving yards in Ohio State history. He should be first in all three by the end of the 2026 season. He is a two-time first-team All-American, a two-time Big Ten receiver of the year, and a national champion.
He is evolving.
Of the 10 scholarship receivers on Ohio State’s roster, only Brandon Inniss has been here longer than Smith. And Smith has doubled Inniss’ career snaps.
“I remember when I was just a little freshman out here running around making plays,” Smith said Saturday. “Now I’m the oldest guy in the room.”
In his first interview session since before the Cotton Bowl, it seemed Smith was rising to that veteran status. But those are words.
Smith reminded us of three actions that will define his final year in Columbus.
He stayed.
Smith ended transfer speculation with a tweet on Jan. 6, five days after the end of Ohio State’s season.
But let’s be honest. In a sport where every player is a free agent every season, this could have made for a reasonable trio of rationalizations for Smith to leave:
• His position coach, Brian Hartline, left to be the head coach at South Florida.
• He’s the best player in the sport and must have had teams ready to throw money at him.
• He’s a Miami native who picked Ohio State at a time when the hometown Hurricanes weren’t on the same level as the Buckeyes. Then Miami beat Ohio State in the playoff. The gap had closed.
Back home, for big money, when his trusted position coach was gone?
I had to ask. Was there any question about whether he’d be back?
“No, I was always going to be at Ohio State,” Smith said.
Even though, yes, Miami wanted him.
“I knew especially at the end of that game that a certain program was going to come at me very hard,” Smith said, “but I'm not going to name certain names. I think everybody here knows who it was.”
It wasn’t Wake Forest.
A move by Smith would have been the most seismic player transfer of the NIL era. You think Cam Coleman (56 catches, 708 yards) going from Auburn to Texas was big? Smith (87 catches, 1,243 yards) from Ohio State to Miami would have shattered the sport.
But he stayed.
He worked.
Smith was one of four players named an Iron Buckeye for his performance in winter workouts.
Last summer, he was one of eight Iron Buckeyes.
Last winter, he was one of three Iron Buckeyes.
In the summer of 2024, he was one of 10 Iron Buckeyes, and the first true freshman ever to have that honor bestowed upon him.
That’s four for four. It matters to him.
“I’m still the hardest worker on the team,” Smith said. “All the accolades and stuff like that, I still have the mentality I’m going to be the hardest worker on my team. … In high school I was the hardest-working player on my team, and in the NFL I’m going to be the hardest-working player on the team. It’s something that’s been installed in me as a little kid, and that’s the only thing I know how to do is work hard.”
So he worked.
He owned it.
The most incongruous part of Ohio State’s 2025 season is that the back-breaking play that doomed the Buckeyes was created in part by a mistake by their best player.
It’s not a thing anyone has been eagerly shouting from the mountaintops. So it was notable, if appropriate, to hear Smith own it Saturday.
You remember the sequence.
Ohio State trailed Miami 7-0. The Buckeyes started their third drive with a 59-yard deep shot from Julian Sayin to Smith.
Then came a sack for a loss of six.
And on second-and-16 from the Miami 22-yard line, Ohio State tried to throw a bubble screen to Brandon Inniss. Smith was lined up across from Miami defensive back Keionte Scott and failed to block him. Scott jumped the route, and instead of Ohio State being 22 yards away from tying it, Scott went 78 yards the other way with an interception for a 14-0 Miami lead.
It was true the snap was a bit off target and may have thrown off the timing. And it’s definitely true that Scott, since that play, said he sniffed it out in film study and knew it was coming.
“All week we were seeing that play,” Scott said at the NFL Combine. “Seeing the tips and reminders before the game, during the game, that play’s made during the week.”
So that’s on the coaching staff for allowing the Miami defense and a veteran like Scott to figure out their tendencies.
But still, Smith missed a block.
Asked about how the losses to Indiana and Miami generally motivated him, Smith got specific.
“(It’s) been in the back of my mind, especially about that play that happened,” Smith said. “You can say that play is on me, and it’s something I’m going to learn from for sure. It’s a humbling moment.
“I’m going to push myself to exhaustion and never make that play happen again.”
His final season in Columbus begins in just over five months.
He’s ready.
LOVE the iron buckeye conversation here. It’s truly so unprecedented!