Jeremiah Smith has pushed the Ohio State wide receiver conversation into rare territory.
After what he did in the Buckeyes’ 42-19 win over Illinois, the discussion is no longer about whether Smith belongs in the program’s elite group. It has shifted to something bigger: whether the sophomore has already done enough to stand alone as the best receiver in school history.
Smith’s line against the Illini was the kind that forces a reset. He finished with 12 catches, 217 yards and four touchdowns, all career highs. And the numbers came with the kind of plays that have started to feel normal in Columbus, including a sequence in which he spun an Illinois defensive back around before creating separation.
“The story is Jeremiah Smith,” host Dave Holmes said on THE SCRIPT. “It was the best day in the history of the best receiver to ever play at Ohio State.”
That is a heavy statement in a program that has rolled out receivers like Cris Carter, Joey Galloway, David Boston, Santonio Holmes, Michael Thomas, Terry McLaurin, Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Marvin Harrison Jr. Still, Smith’s combination of size, movement and production has made the debate impossible to avoid.
Beanie Wells pointed to the physical package Smith brings to the field, calling it something you do not see often even in a sport full of top-end talent.
“Watching him be that big, but move that fluid out there on a football field was nothing short of amazing,” Wells said. “There’s no way you put him in one-on-one situations. It’s not going to be like that when he gets to the National Football League, let alone in college.”
Illinois tried anyway, and Smith made them pay for it. Holmes said the performance mattered even more because Ohio State could not simply coast through the afternoon. The game stayed competitive deep into the second half, which gave Smith a chance to deliver when the Buckeyes needed him most.
“It wasn’t just one of those games where you’re pouring on somebody who’s a lesser opponent,” Holmes said. “They actually had to step up in these big moments and get these yards and touchdowns when you absolutely are needed on your football team.”
By the end of the weekend, Smith was leading the nation in receiving yards and tied for the national lead with seven touchdown catches. That only sharpened the question Holmes put out there: “Is the debate already over? Best receiver in school history?”
The answer on the show was not unanimous, but that had less to do with Smith than with the weight of Ohio State’s receiver tradition. Wells, though, made his view clear. In his eyes, Smith has already separated himself from the pack.
“He’s been that dominant and that productive,” Wells said. “Ever since he stepped foot on the playing surface here at Ohio State, he’s been the best receiver in the country.”
There is still plenty ahead. Ohio State has Iowa, USC, Indiana, Michigan and Oregon on the schedule, with a possible Big Ten championship game and College Football Playoff run after that. Wells said those stages could even put Smith in the Heisman Trophy conversation, a trophy that almost never goes to a receiver.
“When people are game-planning against you and you’re still able to be as dominant, I think that’s the more glaring thing,” Wells said.
Smith still has more games to play and more records to chase. But after Illinois, the question has changed. It is no longer whether the conversation is too early.
It is whether anyone in scarlet and gray has ever been better.
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