Jeremiah Smith may have helped his own Heisman argument on Saturday without even intending to.
After Ohio State’s 38-yard touchdown on fourth and one at Indiana - the play that ended up deciding the game - Smith was asked about the catch and offered a blunt answer: “I actually ran the wrong route.”
Julian Sayin was looking shorter as the pocket collapsed, so he put the ball in the air anyway. Smith rose over two Indiana defenders and hauled it in.
The route was off. The throw was imperfect.
The result was still the same: Smith was better than everybody else on the field.
That’s the heart of the Heisman case, even now that Sayin is hurt and the Buckeyes are turning to a true freshman.
Smith remains the favorite, though his odds have slipped since Sayin’s injury. Before Indiana, he was at -220.
Now they sit somewhere between -110 and -145 depending on the sportsbook. No one is really breathing down his neck.
Miami quarterback Darian Mensah is next at about +400, with Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss third on Fanduel.
The numbers are already loud enough to carry the conversation. Smith leads the nation with 52 catches, ranks second with 984 receiving yards and is also second with 12 touchdowns.
He has scored in six of seven games, including four in a row. Earlier this season, he put together back-to-back 200-yard games, and he already owns every major receiving record at Ohio State.
Next up is the Big Ten record book. His touchdown at Indiana was the 39th of his career, which tied Braylon Edwards’ conference record.
One more gives Smith the record outright. He is also 246 yards away from tying John Standeford’s Big Ten career receiving yards mark of 3,788, and 247 yards from passing it.
Even the modest line from Indiana works in his favor. Smith finished with four catches for 68 yards, his lowest total of the season, against a defense that clearly made stopping him the priority. Afterward, he said Indiana had extra defenders around him on every snap, and still he delivered the biggest play of the night.
The quarterback change matters, though. There’s no getting around that.
Smith and Sayin had been together for two years, and that kind of timing does not just carry over because another quarterback steps in. Smith said after the game that building the same connection with Luke Fahey is going to “take time”.
The bigger issue is volume. With a freshman quarterback now running the offense and Ja’Kobi Jackson also out after surgery, Ohio State may lean even harder on Bo Jackson and the run game. Defenses could also crowd Smith more aggressively and force Fahey to solve things elsewhere.
That could mean fewer explosive afternoons and more games that look a lot like Indiana.
The schedule does not exactly offer relief. Smith’s next three games are at USC on Halloween, then at home against Oregon and Northwestern, before road trips to Nebraska and Michigan to close the regular season.
And there’s the broader Heisman reality: if Ohio State stumbles in one or two of those games, it gets much harder for anyone in scarlet and gray to win the award. The Heisman usually belongs to the best player on a team that stays firmly in the national title and top-ten mix.
Still, Smith’s case is built a little differently than a quarterback’s. A quarterback’s Heisman path can collapse when the supporting cast changes. Smith’s path is more about whether voters still see the same thing they’ve seen for three years: the best player in college football.
That part hasn’t changed.
If anything, the freshman-quarterback situation could help him. If Smith keeps winning contested balls, keeps scoring, and keeps Ohio State moving while Fahey settles in, the spotlight only gets brighter.
Wide receivers do not take home the Heisman very often. DeVonta Smith was the last one to do it, in 2020.
A receiver has to be unmistakably better than everyone else, week after week, to break through. Jeremiah Smith has spent three seasons looking exactly like that player.
He does not need perfect throws. Saturday made that obvious.
He did not even need to run the right route. He just needs the ball put in his vicinity, and Ohio State’s job is simple from here: keep giving him chances to go get it.
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Ohio States Bye Week Just Became A Crucial QB Decision
Ohio States bye week has turned into more than a breather. With Julian Sayin dealing with an injury, the Buckeyes are using the open date to sort through their options at quarterback, and that means taking a hard look at freshman Luke Fahey and sophomore Tavien St. Clair as possible replacements if the position remains in flux.
Across the rivalry, Michigan has already made a change of its own, benching Bryce Underwood and moving freshman Tommy Carr into the starting role for the upcoming game against Indiana. The timing only adds to the pressure around Columbus, where the Buckeyes are watching not just their own depth chart but a busy Week 8 slate that could ripple through conference standings and shape the bigger picture in the Big Ten race. [Read more 🡒]
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Ohio State Just Made A Loud Statement About Its National Pull
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The rest of the top ten only reinforced how crowded the sports biggest stages can get, with notable games from the Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 all drawing major audiences. Alabama-Tennessee led the SECs weekend numbers, but Ohio States latest television footprint is the kind of data point that speaks to more than one Saturday - it speaks to the programs reach every time it takes the field. [Read more 🡒]