Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith was one of the breakout players of the first month of the college football season, frequently making highlight-reel catches.
The No. 1 overall recruit in the 2024 class came into this season with enormous expectations after receiving buzz all offseason, and he has lived up to them by racking up 19 catches, 364 yards, five receiving touchdowns and one rushing touchdown in just four games.
The freshman from Miami has made one-handed grabs look easy and turned short catches into touchdowns after running away from entire defenses. Every game he seems to come down with another catch that trends on social media — even if Alabama’s own star freshman, Ryan Williams, stole the show on a bigger stage Saturday against Georgia.
Let’s rank Smith’s best plays heading into the Buckeyes’ game Saturday against Iowa, which has the best defense he’ll have faced thus far.
1. One-handed? Double-teamed? No problem
JEREMIAH SMITH ARE YOU KIDDING?! 🤯
📺 Peacock | @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/wbhzKFPfWu
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 29, 2024
The touchdown Smith had after this was remarkable, but this was Smith’s favorite. It’s absurd.
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard has said that he just has to give Smith a chance to catch the ball and he’s confident the freshman will come down with it. This was one of those situations.
“Put it up and he’ll make the play,” Howard said after Smith’s first game. “That’s all I have to do is give him a chance and he’ll do the rest.”
Michigan State was in a two-high safety look to prevent something like this from happening, but this just proves how difficult it is to stop Smith. He does a nice job on this corner route and runs right by the outside cornerback playing the flat. Howard gets rid of the ball at the right moment to give Smith a chance to catch the ball between the two defenders, and then it’s all up to the talented freshman from there.
His only hope of catching it was one-handed, and he does that despite the Michigan State safety yanking his face mask down and the corner pulling at his legs.
Ohio State receivers have made some unbelievable catches over the years. This is right up there with the best.
2. The press box goes wild
I’ve never seen a press box react to a play the way it did to this touchdown catch from Smith.
This came just a few plays after his one-handed catch on the sideline, so the reaction to this one was even more amplified. To be clear, there’s no cheering allowed in the press box, but this catch made people stand up and pace up and down the aisle in reaction. Even the NFL scouts reacted out of the norm to this catch.
“What an unbelievable catch,” Ryan Day said afterward. “I couldn’t believe he caught it.”
Smith can make any play look easy no matter who his quarterback is, and that’s proven again here. Devin Brown had to come in for Howard, who was taken out of the game the play before after having the wind knocked out of him.
This was another two-high look, and Smith does a great job of winning off the line against the pressed corner and getting into the sweet spot between the safety and the corner. To Brown’s credit, although the ball was slightly overthrown, he gets rid of it at the right time to hit that window.
Smith shows again that if a quarterback gives him a chance, he’ll make the play. He did it again and propelled Ohio State to an easy victory after this.
3. Welcome to college football
Jeremiah Smith’s debut is living up to the hype. pic.twitter.com/5kyaVcrI5x
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) August 31, 2024
This was my first “Oh, this kid is the real deal” moment in a game
His first touchdown was a nice fade — it’s on this list too — but this was an eye-opener because I still don’t know how he caught this.
There’s a lot to love about Smith, from his speed to his catch radius, but the way he adjusts to throws is really impressive for an 18-year-old. It doesn’t matter if he’s open and has to adjust or if a player is draped over him; he finds a way to get a hand on the ball. That’s what this was.
He had to slow down and get his hands ready for this throw through contact and then make sure the ground didn’t knock it out.
4. First of many touchdowns
This was what we saw all preseason camp. When Ohio State gets inside the 20, it’s going to look toward Smith.
It didn’t take long for that to come to fruition in a game. It’s just Akron, but this is still an impressive catch by Smith, who has really good body control.
As he often does in these clips, he does a nice job getting off press and working into his route. He gets good position and Howard puts a good ball on Smith’s back shoulder.
5. Yes, he can run too
There are numerous possibilities for the fifth catch on this list, but I picked this because it shows off another part of Smith’s game: his speed.
At 6 feet 3 and 215 pounds, it might be expected that Smith imposes his will on opponents physically. But he’s also a speedster.
This is particularly impressive because he catches this pass at nearly a complete stop. He has three defenders around him, runs by them and then runs away from the six defenders chasing him down for a 70-yard touchdown.
I don’t think there’s a thing on the field Smith can’t do — and he’s just four games into his career. The best is yet to come, which is a scary thought for Big Ten defenses playing Ohio State for the next two and a half seasons.
(Photo: Barbara J. Perenic / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
