After losing to the Oregon Ducks on October 12, the Ohio State Buckeyes were put in a position where they likely would need to win the rest of their games to make it back to the Big Ten Championship for the first time since 2020.
The Buckeyes are 2-0 since, with victories over the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Penn State Nittany Lions as they now have a pair of presumed wins before closing the season against the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers and rival Michigan Wolverines, who are very much on a down year but have beaten Ohio State three straight times.
Ohio State’s success this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball, has been partly due to freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. Smith leads all Buckeye receivers with 678 yards, which is third-most in the Big Ten behind Maryland wide receiver Tai Felton (907) and Washington wide receiver Denzel Boston (682).
In the win over Penn State, Smith had a season-low 55 receiving yards. The output was still enough to push him past Cris Carter for the most single-season receiving yards by a true freshman in school history. Carter recorded 648 yards in the 1984 season.
Speaking to Ohio State fansite Eleven Warriors on Wednesday, Smith shared that passing Carter was one of the goals he set out to accomplish before the season.
“It’s a blessing for sure, but just gotta keep working. It’s something that’s been a goal of mine, when I first got here I wrote it down in January actually. Just something I’ll continue to work towards throughout the year,” Smith said.
The freshman standout needs one more touchdown to pass Carter’s single-season freshman touchdown mark, but the Penn State game was the first game this season that Smith was held out of the end zone, so it’s a safe bet that he’ll haul in at least one more before the season ends.
