Jeremiah Smith just put a new wrinkle on Alabama’s recruiting history.
At SEC Media Days on Wednesday, the Ohio State star said Alabama was once his “dream school” growing up, a detail that lands hard when you consider how much talent rolled through Tuscaloosa during Nick Saban’s run and how rare it became for Alabama to miss on elite receivers.
“Growing up my dream school was Alabama when Nick Saban was there. But they wasn’t recruiting me," Smith said, via Stephen Means of Cleveland.com.
That admission is especially striking because Smith arrived at Ohio State as a class of 2024 prospect and quickly became the kind of receiver who looks built for the biggest stage. Alabama, meanwhile, had already gone through its golden stretch at wideout from 2017-2020, when the room was stacked with Jerry Jeudy, DeVonta Smith, Henry Ruggs and Jaylen Waddle. Even John Metchie, who was WR5 in 2019 and later became a second-round pick, had to wait his turn behind four future first-rounders.
After that wave, the Tide’s receiver recruiting took a noticeable dip, at least when it came to high school prospects. Jameson Williams delivered big-time production in his lone season at Alabama after transferring from Ohio State, but the homegrown pipeline wasn’t nearly as sharp.
Smith’s comments add another name to the list of Alabama misses, and maybe the biggest one yet. Saban has already said publicly that his biggest recruiting mistake was not going after tight end Mason Taylor harder, with Taylor eventually landing at LSU and delivering the game-winning two-point conversion in the Tigers’ 2022 win over Alabama in Baton Rouge.
Still, Smith’s revelation feels like the one that gets the imagination going. It’s hard not to picture him alongside Ryan Coleman-Williams in Tuscaloosa, with two of college football’s most electric young receivers sharing the same offense in 2024.
Of course, there’s no way to know whether Smith would have stayed put if Alabama had pushed harder and landed him before Saban retired after the 2023 season. He would have had the same transfer freedom so many others did, including current Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin, who was once an Alabama signee.
Even so, the fact that Alabama was Smith’s dream school makes the miss look even bigger. If Saban is asked again about the recruiting swing he’d most like back, this one may now be sitting at the top of the list.
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