Even Jeremiah Smith is surprised by his role at Ohio State

Any recruiting expert could have told you that Ohio State freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith was going to be good.

Smith, from Opa Locka, Florida, was the consensus No. 1 overall recruit in the 2024 class. You don’t often see the No. 1 overall slot be a wide receiver. That’s usually a spot reserved for quarterbacks, offensive linemen or pass rushers, but that’s how good of a prospect Smith was coming out of Chaminade-Madonna Prep.

Ohio State was thrilled to win the recruiting battle for him, and through three games as a freshman, he’s already lived up to the hype.

He’s caught 14 passes for 281 yards and four touchdowns. That includes a five-catch, 119-yard and one-touchdown performance in a win against Western Michigan. Perhaps most impressive, though, is the fact that Smith is currently the team’s leading receiver.

He recently revealed that even he wasn’t expecting that type of production out of himself early on in his freshman campaign.

“Not at all,” Smith said, according to On3. “This is Ohio State. [With] all the receivers that been here and that was here before I got here, I did not have the expectation of having the role that I have right now. I just give all the thanks to God just to be able to be in this position right now.”

Smith is right. The expectations are high for Ohio State receivers — the same can be said for Buckeye quarterbacks — and so far, he’s proving to be the real deal.

Again, it’s not all that surprising for those paying attention, though. He checked in at 6-foot-3 and 214 pounds as a senior in high school while putting up 88 catches for 1,376 yards and 19 touchdowns on a Chaminade-Madonna Prep team that went 14-0 and won its third-straight state title.

Smith may be humble about it, but this has always been in the cards for him.