Urban Meyer’s praise for Jeremiah Smith was eye-catching, but the numbers tell a different story.
Smith has already rewritten the Ohio State record book three games into his junior season, passing a long list of Buckeyes standouts that includes Emeka Egbuka, Chris Olave, Marvin Harrison Jr, Cris Carter, Santonio Holmes and Garrett Wilson. He now sits at the top of the school’s receiving charts, and that alone has revived the bigger question around him: is he not just Ohio State’s best ever, but the best college receiver ever?
Meyer went there on the Triple Option podcast.
"To say you're the best receiver in Ohio State history, I'm biased about this, but then he probably is the best receiver in college football history," Meyer said on the Triple Option podcast.
That’s a big statement, and it doesn’t hold up if the argument is strictly about college production. Smith’s Ohio State line stands at 184 receptions, 2,958 yards and 30 touchdowns, which is tremendous. But it still doesn’t place him at the top of the all-time college receiver list.
The numbers point to Corey Davis as the standard. Davis finished with 332 catches, 5,285 yards and 52 touchdowns, and no player with four years of college experience comes close to that level of production. Even if Smith added 100 receptions, 1,800 yards and 20 touchdowns, he would still only crack the top three.
If you narrow the field to players with three seasons or fewer, Smith lands fourth by average, behind Randy Moss, Michael Crabtree and Larry Fitzgerald.
That’s why the conversation has to be split in two: college greatness and NFL projection are not the same thing. The all-time college wide receiver top 10 by the numbers includes Moss, Crabtree, Fitzgerald, Mike Williams (USC), Corey Davis, Charles Rogers, Justin Blackmon, Jerry Rice, Ryan Broyles and Marquis Lee. The next 10 features Amari Cooper, DeVonta Smith, JaMarr Chase, Calvin Johnson, Keyshawn Johnson, Antonio Brown, Golden Tate, Braylon Edwards, Tavon Austin and Tory Holt.
Even that list leaves out names like Tim Brown, Desmond Howard and Sterling Sharpe, which shows how messy the conversation gets once you try to rank wideouts across different eras and different career lengths.
Meyer’s point, though, was more about Smith’s place in the Ohio State lineage and what that says about him as a player. Ohio State has a strong claim to being “Receiver U,” though LSU and Miami are also in that fight. If Smith is the best Buckeye receiver ever, Meyer is arguing, then maybe he belongs in the broader national conversation too.
There’s at least a case to be made on the prospect side. Smith’s ceiling has never been limited to college production.
His blend of size, speed, power, length, athleticism and hands has him in the “best WR prospect” conversation already, and he was there as a freshman. At nearly 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, with an expected sub 4.35 40-yard dash time, he has the kind of profile that can bend a draft board.
The comp conversation keeps coming back to Randy Moss and Calvin Johnson, and for good reason. Smith has Moss-like speed, quickness, high-point ability, deception at the line and creativity in the air.
He also brings Johnson-like strength, power, touch-catch ability and the kind of presence that defenses can’t really scheme away. His length, long speed, hands and football IQ pull from both Hall of Famers.
That’s why the best way to frame Smith is this: he may not be the best college receiver ever by production, but he absolutely belongs in the conversation as the best receiver prospect ever. He is expected to declare for the NFL draft after this season, and that class could include as many as ten quarterbacks in the first 50 picks. Smith could go in the top five and settle the prospect debate.
What he can’t do yet is claim the title Meyer handed him. For now, the case for best college receiver ever just doesn’t match the numbers.
But the case for best draft prospect ever? That one is very much alive.
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