Ohio State freshman sensation Jeremiah Smith focused on tempering lofty expectations ahead of 2024 season

Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith is one of the most ballyhooed freshmen in recent college football history. Less than a year into his Buckeyes career, Smith is already in line to start for a team with national championship upside. 

It’s also the same Ohio State team that has produced four first-round wide receivers since 2022. To say that Smith is entering his college career with huge expectations would be an understatement. 

Smith is already handling the pressure like a veteran. 

“I know it’s a big expectation for me because I’m the No. 1 player in the country coming in and all the hype around me,” Smith said. “So, I mean, I just try to block out all that stuff and just focus on the main thing, just the team and our receiver room and the locker room. And just the first game comes, and if I don’t exceed the expectations that y’all have for me, I mean, I don’t really care. I just want to go out there and win the game.”

It’s hard not to hype up Smith. He signed with the Buckeyes as the top overall prospect in the 2024 class. He is the highest-ranked wide receiver in 247Sports history and is one of just 12 players to ever receive a grade of at least 101 (the scale typically goes to 100). 

So, he has a chance to be really good. How good? The name Julio Jones, who had 924 yards and four touchdowns receiving as a freshman at Alabama in 2008, has most often been used in association with Smith. 

But for all its success producing wide receivers, Ohio State rarely fields any Year 1 breakouts. That means Smith has a chance to enter some pretty rarified air. 

Not many freshman Buckeyes receivers have reached 500 yards in a single season. Program legend Cris Carter had 648 in 1984, and few have come close to matching him since. 

With a starting role in one of the nation’s most prolific offenses, it wouldn’t be impossible to see Smith hit that mark. Even if he’s playing alongside the likes of Emeka Egbuka, a potential 2025 NFL Draft first-round pick, and Carnell Tate, a former five-star prospect in his own right that’s coming off a solid first-year campaign. 

But Smith isn’t getting too far ahead of himself. For now, he still needs to get to the field before he can stand alongside some of Ohio State’s greats. 

“I just got to go out there on the field and just show you guys that I could be the next probably great Ohio State receiver to come through here,” Smith said. “So, I mean, it’s a blessing to have that (hype). But I just got to go out there and play and show you guys.”