Jeremiah Smith rightfully has more hype around him than any player not named Arch Manning in 2025. The Ohio State star wide receiver had a borderline perfect first season, and he’s looking to recapture that magic in Year 2. As a freshman for the Buckeyes, Smith caught 76 passes for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns […]
Jeremiah Smith rightfully has more hype around him than any player not named Arch Manning in 2025. The Ohio State star wide receiver had a borderline perfect first season, and he’s looking to recapture that magic in Year 2.
As a freshman for the Buckeyes, Smith caught 76 passes for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns during the team’s national championship run. During an appearance on The Triple Option, Smith explained how he’s keeping the main thing the main thing, even after expectations have skyrocketed in 2025.
“I’ve been handling it very well,” Smith stated. “I come from humble beginnings. I don’t all that stuff get to my head. I just focus on the main thing, and that’s football and the team.
“So, I don’t let all that — you know, all the awards I’m up for, and all the hype around my name (affect that). I just want to focus on the team and focus on football.”
That’s a great mindset from the Buckeyes star. Regardless, he’s entering the season as one of the sport’s top players, and many theorized he would’ve been a first round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, if he was eligible.
He still has a couple more seasons of college football left to play though, and the sky is the limit for him. Jeremiah Smith isn’t taking anything for granted, and he’s willing to work for everything he’s got. His encore could be even better than Year 1 with that mindset.
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Moreover, there’s very few rivalries as intense as the one between Ohio State and Michigan. That’s particularly true for the players, like star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who play in them, even coming off a national championship season.
Later in his appearance on The Triple Option, former Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer asked Smith what he thinks of That Team Up North. It was a relatively simple answer for the wide receiver.
“Hate,” Jeremiah Smith said. “You know. With everything in me, I hate them.”
In his freshman season at Ohio State, Smith broke out and became one of the best receivers in the country. However, that wasn’t enough to beat Michigan, and the Buckeyes lost their fourth straight game to the Wolverines. In the effort, Smith caught five passes for 35 yards and a touchdown. That was the only Ohio State touchdown in the game.
This isn’t the first time Jeremiah Smith has made his stance on Michigan clear, either. Earlier this summer, he made it clear that he has no intention of losing to Michigan again during his college career, however long that may end up being.
Ohio State won’t have a chance to snap their losing streak to Michigan until November 29th, the last game of the regular season. This year, The Game is going to be held in Ann Arbor. First, however, Smith and the Buckeyes need to focus on the rest of the regular season.
— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.
Category: General Sports
