Jeremiah Smith showed signs in his debut that he just might be able to live up to all the hype and hyperbole that accompanied him to Ohio State.
The freshman pass-catching prodigy led his team with six catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, displaying his uncommon ability to be open even when he doesn’t appear to be open. The No. 2 Buckeyes crushed Akron, 52-6.
Head coach Ryan Day has seen great receivers come and go, but even he couldn’t help but marvel over Smith, who became the first Ohio State freshman to catch two touchdown passes in a season opener since 1996.
“He’s built different — just the way his approach is,” Day said. “You can see his size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) and speed, but typically somebody with that type of talent doesn’t have the discipline and focus that he does.
“Sometimes you look at him, and you don’t think he’s quite human, but he is. He’s going to make a few early mistakes, but not many.”
The first pass thrown to Smith, on Ohio State’s first series, was a drop. (He said later he was actually relieved to get it out of the way.) He got better from there. Way better.
Later in the first quarter, Smith turned around to make a slick catch in the end zone of a 16-yard pass from Kansas State transfer quarterback Will Howard.
“If he’s pressed, and it’s one on one — put it up, and he’ll make it,” Howard said. “He’ll make a play, and that’s exactly what he did. I mean, that’s all I’ve got to do, give him a chance and he’s going to do the rest.”
Late in the first half, Smith caught a 9-yard pass in the end zone with cornerback Devonte Golden-Nelson draped all over him. His best might have been a 45-yard catch in the third quarter with a defender’s hand in his face. That set up a 2-yard scoring run by Quinshon Judkins, the first as a Buckeyes player for the Ole Miss transfer.
“He lived up to the billing,” Akron coach Joe Moorhead said.
They were the kind of catches Buckeyes fans got used to seeing from Marvin Harrison Jr., the Ohio State star selected fourth overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2024 NFL Draft in April.
Now everybody is talking about Smith and what he might be able to do next.
“Pressure? No, I don’t really feel pressure,” he said. “I just want to go out there and play football and win games. I mean, I know all the hype around me was crazy coming in. I just wanted to come in and be a guy (who’s) coming in to work. Just not be about all hype.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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