Jeremiah Smith didn’t look like a receiver mad about his own stat line on Saturday. He looked like a star who knew exactly what Ohio State was wasting.
With six seconds left in the third quarter of a 41-28 loss to Oregon, Smith turned toward the sideline and let his coaching staff have it. He was flexing, glaring and barking at the men with headsets while the Buckeyes trailed 31-14.
At that point, he had only four catches for 46 yards. He finished with seven receptions for 133 yards and a touchdown, but the outburst said more than the box score ever could.
Smith’s frustration wasn’t about selfish touches. It was about Ohio State not getting the ball to its best player soon enough. And by now, that’s become a theme.
He entered Saturday as the only player in college football with at least 70 catches and 1,000 yards this season. During the game, he tied Oregon State’s Jesse Legree for the national lead in touchdown receptions with 14. He’s done all of that while drawing constant double teams and coverages designed to take him out of the game.
That’s why the conversation around him feels so much bigger than one loss. Smith has put together a season worthy of the Heisman Trophy and the Biletnikoff Award.
He’s also the kind of player who should be chasing a national championship right now. Instead, after Ohio State’s third loss, the awards talk and postseason spotlight are starting to slip away.
Three-loss receivers don’t win the Heisman. Three-loss teams don’t make the playoff. And with Ohio State still not done losing, there’s no guarantee Smith gets the recognition his season deserves.
That’s the part that makes Saturday sting. The Buckeyes have a generational player, and at times they’ve treated him like an afterthought.
Smith made that clear earlier in the season, too, when Ohio State was grinding through a 19-15 win against Indiana. With 22 seconds left in the first half and several tight ends on the field, the Buckeyes ran three plays, including two runs, and lost a yard.
Smith ripped off his helmet and made his feelings known to the staff.
Then Ohio State put him back in on fourth down. Four Hoosiers followed Smith, and Julian Sayin hit Bo Jackson in the flat for an uncovered touchdown.
Funny how easy football can be.
“I was pretty upset about that on the sideline,” Smith said then. “We ended up scoring, so it doesn’t really matter at that point.”
That’s the thing with Smith: he isn’t chasing empty volume. He cares about winning, and when Ohio State doesn’t put itself in position to do that, he lets it show.
He had four catches for 68 yards and a touchdown against Indiana, then followed with 10 catches for 83 yards and another score against USC in a game the Buckeyes still lost 18- points? No, they scored 18 points and still couldn’t beat the Trojans.
Even then, cameras caught him talking to himself in frustration late in the fourth quarter.
Ryan Day has defended those reactions as the product of competitiveness.
“He wants to win,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said when asked about Smith’s reactions. “And when he doesn’t win, he gets frustrated. It’s not about, ‘I need touches.’
“... He’s not pointing.
He’s not blaming fingers [sic]. He just gets frustrated like we all do.
And he’s the ultimate competitor.”
That may be true. But the bigger problem is that Smith’s season is being dragged down by everything around him.
Ohio State’s special teams coordinator Robby Discher oversees a unit that ranks 104th nationally, according to Pro Football Focus. Offensive line coach Tyler Bowen has watched his blockers struggle to handle stunts.
Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia keeps rushing four or fewer defenders on passing downs. And the staff Day assembled has left the Buckeyes in a mess.
Smith is going to keep playing, too. Anyone expecting him to shut it down for Ohio State’s final three games hasn’t been paying attention.
He played through a leg injury last year, even after Day said this summer that Smith “could barely walk” during Michigan week. He still took the field in the Buckeyes’ final three games.
He cares that much.
He cared enough to cry when Ohio State named him a captain. He cared enough to turn down a $10 million offer to leave last offseason, something Smith confirmed over the summer. And he cared enough on Saturday to yell at his coaches when the third quarter ended and the offense still hadn’t properly leaned on him.
By the time the staff finally got freshman quarterback Luke Fahey to Smith, it was too late. Day’s group had already turned the final stretch of a special career into something far less fitting.
Smith helped Ohio State win a title as a true freshman. He went on to break most of the school’s receiving records.
Now, in his last season, he’s the one left shouting for better. That says plenty about the coaches.
It says even more about the player.
In Other News...
Jeremiah Smiths Frustration Just Raised A Bigger Ohio State Concern
Jeremiah Smiths frustration during Ohio States loss to Oregon was hard to miss, and it came in a game that already carried major weight for the Buckeyes playoff hopes. Even in defeat, Smith was one of the few bright spots, finishing with seven catches for 133 yards and a touchdown, but the bigger takeaway was how visibly the moment seemed to wear on one of the teams most important playmakers.
For Ohio State, the concern goes beyond one heated sideline reaction. Smiths production showed why he matters so much to the offense, but an analysts speculation that he might not play again this season only adds another layer of uncertainty around a team trying to steady itself after the 41-28 loss. For now, it leaves the Buckeyes with more questions than answers about how they move forward. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio States Big Ten Path Just Got A Lot More Complicated
Ohio States road to the Big Ten championship game is no longer just about what the Buckeyes do down the stretch. At 6-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play, Ryan Days team is now waiting on a chain of results elsewhere, with Michigans matchup against Oregon and UCLAs remaining schedule both carrying real weight in how the standings shake out.
For the Buckeyes, the margin for error has shrunk to the point where every conference result matters, even games they are not playing in. Day also said quarterback Julian Sayin is still recovering from elbow surgery and will not be back soon, leaving Ohio State to keep sorting through its own health questions while the bigger picture in the Big Ten keeps shifting around it. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio States Defensive Grades Expose Who Actually Showed Up Vs Oregon
Ohio States defense had a long afternoon against Oregon, and the film and grading only sharpened the picture from the 41-28 loss. Still, there were a few Buckeyes who at least held up their end, and Eddrick Houston stood out among them with five tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and two pressures while earning a Pro Football Focus grade of 75.4.
The rest of the defensive grades paint a more uneven story, with snap counts and performance varying widely across the unit as Ohio State tried to keep pace. For a defense that needed steadier play in a marquee matchup, the numbers make clear which players were active and which ones were left searching for answers. [Read more 🡒]