The Heisman Trophy has been awarded annually to the top player in college football since 1935. But in the modern era, the award seems to go to the best quarterback.
In recent years, the trophy has found its way into the hands of two non-quarterbacks in last year’s Heisman winner Travis Hunter of Colorado and in 2020 when wide receiver DeVonta Smith won the award for Alabama. Once again, the quarterbacks are headlining the list of names to win the award this year. And Ohio State’s star sophomore wide receiver Jeremiah Smith deserves to join them
Smith has been nothing short of dominant this season and is coming off a career high game against Purdue where he caught 10 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown. At 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, he has elite size and speed to separate himself, but it is also his route running, blocking, and IQ. All traits that NFL scouts use to separate him from most of his contemporaries.
The Buckeyes threat is a nightmare for defensive coordinators and has already dismantled some of the best in the Big 10 in Penn State and Wisconsin. If a team elects to press him, he can beat you with his physicality. Give him space and he will find the pockets in the zones and out run you. Since last year’s College Football Playoff Semifinal where Texas limited Smith to one catch, no team has held him under five receptions in a game.
Smith has not had a sophomore slump with the Buckeyes and has a great chance to surpass his numbers he set after a phenomenal freshman season when he caught 76 balls for 1,115 yards and 15 touchdowns. Through nine games this season, Smith has 65 receptions for 862 yards and 10 touchdowns. On the season, he has three games where has caught two touchdowns matching his total from a year ago.
There is a good chance that Smith could become Ohio State’s single-season receiving touchdown record holder and is only seven away from matching Terry Glenn’s record of 17 set in 1995.
Smith in just under two seasons has put his name up with the very best of Buckeyes wide receivers like Chris Carter, Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, and Chris Olave to name a few. With one more season left for the wideout, he could finish as Ohio State’s greatest receiver ever in receptions, yards, and touchdowns.
Not to mention, there is a favorable schedule ahead of him.
With games against UCLA, Rutgers, and on the road against 18th ranked Michigan to close out the season, Smith very likely will have surpassed his totals from last season and set some new Ohio State records. But for the second straight season, he will show that he is the best wideout in college football and that alone.
All the quarterbacks this season are having fantastic years, but they are essentially carbon copies of one another. With Jeremiah Smith there are no carbon copies, just him.
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