CHICAGO -- Jeremiah Smith confirmed the obvious Wednesday: this will be his final season at Ohio State. But the star wide receiver said that before he departs for the NFL, he wants to cement his Buckeyes legacy by winning a second national championship.
“Bringing more hardware back to Ohio State,” Smith said during Big Ten media days. “That’s what the perfect season would look like.”
Entering his junior year, Smith already ranks among college football’s most accomplished players.
He started as a true freshman in 2024 and broke multiple Ohio State freshman receiving records. Smith also came up with a game-clinching, 56-yard reception on third-and-11 in the Buckeyes’ national championship victory over Notre Dame.
Last year, Smith helped propel the Buckeyes to an undefeated regular season and another playoff appearance.
Through just two seasons, he now has 163 receptions for 2,558 yards and 27 touchdowns.
“He’s a gentleman, a high character guy who does everything right,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “We’re very fortunate he’s a Buckeye. He’s done so many great things for us. But he wants this year to be his best.”
Despite his accomplishments, Smith has yet to be a Heisman finalist or win the Biletnikoff Award, given to the best receiver in the country. Smith said he’s “definitely chasing” both honors, adding he believes the Heisman should go to the “best player,” instead of to the player with the best stats or to the best quarterback.
“I feel like it’s always a quarterback award -- unless you have a crazy season like DeVonta Smith,” said Jeremiah Smith, referring to the former Alabama receiver who had 1,856 receiving yards and 23 touchdown catches en route to winning the Heisman in 2020.
Since 2015, Travis Hunter is the only non-quarterback besides DeVonta Smith to win the Heisman, though Hunter played both ways for the Buffaloes before going second overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2025 NFL draft.
Like Hunter, Smith is widely projected to be the first non-quarterback selected in next year’s draft. Even so, Smith said that isn’t on his mind just yet.
“I don’t really focus on what’s in the future. I focus on what’s right now. And that’s Ohio State football,” Smith said. “I’m not really focusing on NFL but trying to make everybody around me better. And that’s what all the greats did. Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, that’s what LeBron James is doing. That what I’m trying to do. Trying to leave the jersey better than (how) I found it.”
