Jeremiah Smith keeps rewriting Ohio State’s record book, and every week he seems to make the numbers look a little more ridiculous.
On Saturday against Iowa, the Buckeyes’ star wide receiver piled up 11 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns, then sat down afterward and admitted even he was stunned by the box score.
“Yeah, I was surprised I had 200 yards,” Smith said as he looked at the postgame box score and a big smile flashed across his face. “I didn't know I had that much.”
That came one week after he carved up Illinois for 12 receptions, 217 yards and four touchdowns. Against Iowa, though, he may have topped that outing in difficulty and in impact.
Illinois’ defense may have been one of the worst in the Big Ten, but Iowa entered Saturday allowing only eight points and 152 passing yards per game. Smith erased both of those marks on his own, while still looking nearly impossible to cover.
The play that summed it up came early in the second quarter. Smith hauled in a 54-yard catch between three Iowa defenders on a ball that Julian Sayin later admitted probably should never have been thrown.
“We probably shouldn't have gone there, but he ended up making it right and made a great play,” Sayin said after the game.
Smith’s day in Iowa City was also a record-breaking one. He became Ohio State’s all-time leader in receiving touchdowns by breaking Chris Olave’s career mark, and he passed Emeka Egbuka for the school’s career receptions record. On top of that, he became the first Buckeye ever to top 200 receiving yards in back-to-back games.
Those milestones followed another huge stretch earlier in the season. Smith opened with eight catches for 151 yards and two touchdowns in just one half against Ball State, then followed that with eight receptions for 164 yards and a touchdown on the road at Texas. He then added five catches for 85 yards against Kent State before his explosion against Illinois and another against Iowa.
Through five games, Smith’s stat line sits at 44 catches for 823 yards and nine touchdowns.
Back at Big Ten Media Days, Smith said he believed it would take something close to DeVonta Smith’s 2020 Heisman season to win college football’s most quarterback-friendly award. DeVonta Smith finished that year with 117 catches for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns. Through five games, Jeremiah Smith already has 267 more receiving yards and four more touchdowns than DeVonta Smith had at the same point in his Heisman run.
The comparison only gets more striking when laid side by side:
2020 DeVonta Smith vs. 2026 Jeremiah Smith Through Five Games
DeVonta Stat Jeremiah
45 REC 44
556 YDS 823
5 TD 9
12.4 YPC 18.7
Smith’s current pace also stacks up favorably against another recent Ohio State star. Through five games, he has only seven fewer catches and 52 fewer yards than Carnell Tate had across all of last season in 11 games, when Tate finished with the same number of touchdowns before becoming the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft.
Smith was already viewed as the best player in college football coming into the 2026 season. Now, the argument looks settled.
Even with only three full-time wide receivers ever winning the Heisman - Tim Brown in 1987, Desmond Howard in 1991 and DeVonta Smith - Jeremiah Smith has moved to the front of the race. As of Saturday night, he was listed at +110 on both FanDuel and DraftKings, with Miami quarterback Darian Mensah next at +475 on DraftKings and +550 on FanDuel.
At this point, Smith isn’t just piling up numbers. He’s putting together a season that is starting to look historic, and if the first five games are any indication, he may still have even bigger performances ahead.
In Other News...
Ohio State Just Delivered The Kind Of Road Win Fans Needed
Ohio State went into Kinnick Stadium and delivered the sort of response win its fans had been waiting for, beating Iowa 31-14 and handing the Hawkeyes their first loss of the season. The Buckeyes controlled the game on both sides of the ball, piling up 484 total yards while keeping Iowa to 238 and a paltry 39 rushing yards, which made this feel less like a tense road test and more like a statement about the gap between the two teams.
Jeremiah Smith was at the center of it, turning the trip into one of those performances that travels well beyond the box score. He finished with 11 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns, giving Ohio State a dynamic edge whenever it needed one and helping offset a couple of turnovers forced by the defense. For a team that needed a clean, convincing road result, this was exactly the kind of night it was looking for. [Read more 🡒]
Jeremiah Smith Just Put Ohio State Fans On Notice Again
Jeremiah Smith kept the Buckeyes moving in Iowa City, turning a road test against the Hawkeyes into another showcase for Ohio States passing game. The freshman wideout tied the Ohio State touchdown record while finishing with 11 catches for 206 yards and two scores, a performance that helped push the Buckeyes to a 4-1 start and add another layer to what has already become a must-watch season in Columbus.
Smiths latest breakout only raises the stakes for what comes next, because Ohio State now heads back home to face Maryland with its young star drawing even more attention. For a team that has spent the early part of the season trying to establish its identity, his ability to create production anywhere on the field has become one of the biggest reasons the Buckeyes keep looking like a contender. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Just Earned The Big Ten Spot Fans Wanted Most
Week 5 brought a clearer picture of the Big Ten race, and Ohio State came out of it looking like the conference team fans expected to see at the top. The Buckeyes handled Iowa in a game that carried more weight than a typical early-season road test, adding a quality win to a rsum that is starting to separate from the pack as the league standings and the national picture begin to take shape.
The rankings around them still have plenty of movement left, with Indiana continuing to push forward, Oregon and UCLA drawing attention for different reasons, and Michigan still trying to sort out its own path. But Ohio States recent momentum is the kind that can hold up as October approaches, especially if the Buckeyes keep matching style points with results in the weeks ahead. [Read more 🡒]