Ohio State Receiver Notebook: 'Lots of encouraging signs early on'

Freshmen Are Making Plays

Even with Ohio State playing a school-record 16 games last season, only three Buckeye receivers played more than 200 snaps in 2024. It was the first time in receivers coach Brian Hartline’s career that only three receivers reached that mark.

Yes, Hartline can be forgiven for not wanting to remove Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, or Carnell Tate from the field a year ago, but the goal is for the room to be deeper and more diverse this season.

On Monday, Hartline was asked if the Buckeyes could have a larger rotation this season, and he quickly turned the question into an answer about freshman receivers Quincy Porter, De’zie Jones, Phillip Bell, and Bodpegn Miller.

“Yeah, I think there’s definitely a group forming. How deep that is, I’m not fully sure yet,” he said. “I mean, it’s definitely coming along. Very encouraged with the young guys, though — the freshmen that have come in. They’re competing.”

How quickly one or two or three of those freshmen can be ready for this season is going to also help dictate just how deep the receiver rotation will be this year. The good news is that all four freshmen are enrolled and learning lessons daily.

“They are making mistakes, but correcting the mistakes quickly and not making repeated mistakes,” Hartline said. “They’re making some plays. There’s probably some consistency level at which you wish it was a little better, but they’re doing a good job taking meetings to the field. So lots of encouraging signs early on, and I anticipate that to continue through summer.”

Chasing The Finite Growth

If you poll a nationwide collection of college football pundits and asked them who the best player in college football is this coming season, the majority of them would probably name Ohio State sophomore wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

As a true freshman last season, Smith caught 76 passes for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns. Smith didn’t just create numbers last season, he also created memories and moments with his stellar play. Even if Smith never got any better than he was last year, that would still be plenty good enough for the rest of his college career.

But that’s not how Smith operates.

“He operates beyond his years, but the techniques and the fundamentals he’s chasing, like a lot of the guys, when you get to a certain point where you’re doing a really good job, you’re chasing that 1%,” explained Brian Hartline. “You’re chasing that finite growth.”

Jeremiah Smith can still get better, which will always be an ongoing process for somebody as motivated as the Ohio State sophomore.

“It’s not always seen on film,” Hartline said of Smith’s chase for improvement. “The individual may feel it, whether it be your base or your technique and the consistency at which you do those things. That’s what he’s chasing. I think he’s chasing football IQ. Learning more about the game, defensive structure, anticipation, more than reactionary.

“But there’s always ways to grow. I mean, if you try to mark the goals of these young men and where they currently are, they’re obviously not where they wanna be. So whatever that gap that needs to get filled, that’s what he’s chasing.”

Carnell Tate Filling Leadership Void

When it comes to filling gaps, the 2025 Ohio State Buckeyes have a massive leadership void that needs to be rectified. With 16 starters gone, experience and leadership are gone as well.

New leaders emerged in the winter, which is now continuing in the spring. One of those leaders is junior wide receiver Carnell Tate, who learned from watching Marvin Harrison, Jr. and Emeka Egbuka as a freshman, and then saw what an incredible leader Egbuka was last year as a senior.

It was an example that Tate is now following because he knows the team needs it.

‘He’s pulled guys aside and had one-on-one conversations with them,” Hartline said. “I think he saw the impact that Emeka made and the role he played. And to think that you’re gonna lose that and then be a better group, probably doesn’t mathematically make sense to him. So someone’s gotta set up in that role.”

Even when he arrived as a true freshman, Carnell Tate earned raves for being a mature player. That continued last year as a sophomore, and now he’s the leader in a room that is as talented as any position group in America.

“One, everyone respects him. Two, he knows he’s capable of it,” Hartline said. “And it’s just the desire and the appreciation, I think, to be at the older table now, the older head, and appreciate the way Emeka went about his business. So he probably valued that, appreciated that, and he’s just making sure we still have that.”