Jeremiah Smith has reached the point where the conversation around him comes with equal parts awe and nonsense. Ohio State’s star wide receiver is already being talked about like a future top-five NFL Draft pick in 2027, and plenty of coaches around the country clearly agree. But one anonymous Big Ten voice decided to go the other way, and the result was a take that is already turning heads.
Bruce Feldman recently asked coaches who the best player in college football is and who should be the highest-paid player in the sport. Smith came back as the clear No. 1 in that second category. Still, one Big Ten running backs coach pushed back hard when Feldman asked about the best player in college football.
“Not Jeremiah," a Big Ten running backs coach told Feldman when asked who the best player in college football is. "Play Cover-2 over him and you take him out of the game. I think he’s closer to DK Metcalf than Jaxon Smith-Njigba.”
That’s the kind of quote that practically begs to be pinned up somewhere in Columbus.
Smith’s résumé already speaks loudly enough. As a freshman, he caught 76 passes for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns.
In 2025, he followed that with 87 receptions for 1,243 yards and 12 scores. Those are video-game numbers, and they help explain why the idea that he can be neutralized so simply feels wildly off base.
The anonymous coach’s comments have already sparked the usual online guessing game about who said it, with some Ohio State fans convinced Tony Alford was the source. There’s no reason to chase that down here, but the remark itself has already added a little extra edge to the conversation around Smith.
And Smith hardly needs much more fuel. He enters his final college season with a Biletnikoff Award chase in front of him, but the bigger goals are obvious: beating Michigan and winning a national title. He’s already done both, helping Ohio State beat Michigan in 2025 and winning the national championship in 2024.
Michigan has had some success slowing him down. Smith has six catches for 75 yards in two games against the Wolverines, and he was virtually erased in the second half of the 2024 matchup.
Still, that doesn’t make the broader criticism hold up. It just means one rivalry has managed to bother him more than most.
Ohio State opens with Ball State, then gets Texas in a showdown that will say plenty about the Buckeyes and their star receiver. If Smith is looking for bulletin-board material, he’s got it now. And if history is any guide, he’s the kind of player who tends to answer loudly.
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Jaxon Smith-Njigba Just Reopened A Debate Ohio State Fans Never Settled
Jaxon Smith-Njigba revisited one of the most lingering Ohio State what-ifs during an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show, where he addressed the hamstring injury that kept him out of the College Football Playoff and his decision not to play. He said he wanted to be on the field to help Ohio State win a national championship, but the injury left him unable to go, putting a painful cap on a season that had already made him one of the Buckeyes most electric playmakers.
Since then, Smith-Njigba has only added to the intrigue around that missed opportunity. He has become one of the NFLs top receivers, leading the league in receiving yards and earning a contract extension, which only sharpens the old debate over how much Ohio State might have gained if he had been able to suit up. For Buckeyes fans, it is the kind of conversation that never really dies, especially when the player at the center of it has gone on to prove just how high his ceiling really was. [Read more 🡒]