2024 Freshman Class Report: Wide Receiver Jeremiah Smith

This is the 18th installment in a series where Buckeye Huddle looks back on each member of Ohio State’s 2024 signing class and the impact they had in their first season, as well as the impact they could have during the upcoming 2025 season. Up next is wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

As a senior at Chaminade-Madonna Prep in Hollywood, Florida, Jeremiah “JJ” Smith helped lead his team to a state title by catching 88 passes for 1,376 and 19 touchdowns. He also posted 16 catches for 316 yards and three touchdowns in a win over New Jersey power Bergen Catholic. His final two years of high school produced 151 receptions for 2,474 yards and 39 touchdowns in 28 games.

Smith was the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2024 recruiting class. He won the high school Maxwell Award as the national player of the year. Smith signed with Ohio State over offers from every major college football program that thought they’d have a shot. As well as the ones who didn’t.

2024 Season

As a true freshman last year, Jeremiah Smith dropped the very first pass thrown his way, then went on to make sure that the only reason people would bring up that particular drop in the future was to make a trivial little aside when talking about the spectacular overall play that he put on the field every single time he was out there.

Smith finished with 76 receptions for 1,315 yards (17.3 ypc) and 15 touchdowns. Only three players nationally finished with more yards and only one player finished with more touchdowns. He led the Big Ten in receptions of 30, 40, 50, and 60 yards. Smith was named the Big Ten Wide Receiver of the Year and was a Freshman All-American.

Smith continued his stellar play in the playoffs where he had 13 catches for 290 yards and four touchdowns against Tennessee and Oregon. Texas then put a heavy concentration of their defense against him in the Cotton Bowl, which was about as big a compliment as an opponent will pay a player. They held him to one catch for 3 yards, but lost the war.

In the national title game against Notre Dame, Smith caught five passes for 88 yards and a touchdown. He effectively clinched the victory with a 56-yard bomb on third and 11 in the game’s final minutes. It could be successfully argued that no freshman in college football history ever exceeded as much hype as Smith exceeded last year. What cannot be argued, however, is that Jeremiah Smith had the greatest freshman season in the long-and-storied history of the Ohio State football program.

So Now What For Jeremiah Smith?

Jeremiah Smith enters the 2025 season as one of college football’s biggest stars, but that’s also how he entered October of last year. The attention won’t be new, even with the added Heisman hype this coming season. The defensive attention, however, may be a little more pronounced.

The Texas Longhorns put a very good blueprint out there on how to contain Smith last year, but that’s not going to be something every team is willing or designed to do. It’s also not something that the Buckeyes will be as passive with next time.

Smith is one of two starting receivers returning for the Buckeyes this year, joining junior Carnell Tate. Together, that duo will be the best in the country, and they’ll be catching passes from a new starting quarterback. In terms of numbers this year, solid arguments can be made for a statistical decrease or increase because there are reasons to believe both make sense.

Jeremiah Smith should have another 1,000-yard season and another 10-15 touchdown catches. He’ll have spectacular plays by the week. Whether he exceeds last year’s numbers or not will likely depend on the kind of playoff run the Buckeyes have. That being said, would anybody be totally shocked if he topped all of his numbers in just 13 games?