Jeremiah Smith and the chase for greatness

“I’m trying to make everybody around me better. That’s what all the greats did. Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, that’s what LeBron James is doing, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Jeremiah Smith struck a Heisman pose at Big Ten Media Days last week. (Photo by Bill Landis)

COLUMBUS — Greatness and sadness.

Those were the two themes that stood out from everything Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith said in Chicago last week. It was the best player in college football committing to his future without ignoring his present.

As we discussed from Big Ten Media Days, Smith was locked in during Ohio State’s day with reporters. I thought he was great in our interview with him. A national reporter was telling me how interesting their interview with Smith was and encouraging me to watch it, and I wanted to say that JJ was giving entertaining stuff to everyone. (But I was just polite and nodded.) Smith engaged when people from the Heisman Trophy asked him to pose with the trophy (above.) He filled his 30 minutes at his general interview with interesting answers.

He gave a glimpse of what’s down the road, without dismissing what’s right in front of him.

A media friend had a running joke a few years ago that elite college players already locked into a high draft spot should skip their last college seasons and work out on the beach in California. He’d shout “Malibu” in the press box.

Jeremiah Smith isn’t interested in going to Malibu. He’s interested in chasing greatness.

First, the sad.

Asked what it was like thinking about his last season in Columbus, Smith said “(it’s) kind of sad a little bit, I should say. Kind of sad, but I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.”

At that point, Stephen Means of cleveland.com and I simultaneously pointed out that Smith doesn’t have to leave after this season. (We, as reporters, are here to represent you, as fans, which may include expressing obvious facts to superstars.)

“I know, but I think it’s time,” Smith said with a laugh.

But here’s what he also said — that leaving Ohio State early would have been “stupid.”

As Smith’s media session wound down, a reporter not from the Ohio State beat asked a final quick one.

Was it true that Smith turned down a $10 million NIL offer from another school?

“Yeah, that’s true,” Smith said.

We had covered some of this ground in the spring, when Smith said he was always going to be at Ohio State and never considered leaving.

But after Ohio State’s unsuccessful recruitment of running back David Gabriel Georges, when major money was offered and DGG chose Tennessee over the Buckeyes, consider the meaning of the best player in the country saying a college choice is about more than money. (Although Smith is definitely getting a lot of money in Columbus).

“It would be dumb for me to leave Ohio State and go to another team when I have the best offensive line in the country, the best quarterback in the country, the best coaches in the country,” Smith said. “So that would be a stupid move for me to go somewhere else.”