Even on a roster full of five stars, Curt Cignetti places Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith in a class by himself.
“Not only do they have a lot of excellent players they have a wow player,” Cignetti said Monday. “That’s really the only word to describe him that I can think of.”
Listed at 6-foot-4 and 222 pounds, Smith’s frame alone will wow you.
But his numbers through six games tell you he more than just looks the part.
The No. 1 player to stop in every opponent’s gameplan, Smith has already posted 48 catches for 916 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2026. He has played 20 quarters this season, averaging 2.4 catches, 45.8 yds and 0.55 TDs per quarter. That pace puts him at 106 catches, 2,015 yards and 24 scores at the end of the regular season.
For his three-year career, Smith is up to 211 catches for 3,474 yards, and 38 scores. Since entering college football in 2024, Jeremiah Smith leads all players in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns.
Smith goes into Saturday needing 315 yards and two touchdowns to break the Big Ten records in those categories.
Only two wide receivers have won the Heisman Trophy in the last 35 years, but Smith is currently running away with it. Each week he is putting more distance between himself and the rest of the pack in the Heisman betting odds. Smith is now -220 on DraftKings and -210 on FanDuel. Those odds imply he has a better than two-thirds chance of winning the award.
This will be the third-straight season Cignetti has faced Smith, and the Hoosiers have done a good job against him. He had three catches for 34 yards in Columbus in 2024, and eight grabs for 144 yards in last season’s Big Ten title game — with a big chunk of the yardage coming on a desperation Hail Mary pass.
Indiana had a secret weapon to help slow Smith the last two years. D’Angelo Ponds went to high school with Smith and had confidence against him in coverage despite giving being seven inches shorter.
But Ponds is off to the NFL, and the Hoosiers haven’t been quite as sturdy at cornerback in 2026. Meanwhile, Cignetti has seen Smith go from great to wow this year, and he’s seen Ohio State find more ways to get him the ball.
“They move Jeremiah around quite a bit,” Cignetti said. “He’s taken it up a notch without question. I think he has nine touchdown catches in the last three Power 4 games. You know, there is no one like him right now playing at this level.
“We got two really good ones (Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh). He’s a freak. We’re going to have to do a great job on him.”
Indiana’s best bet against Smith probably isn’t stopping Smith, it’s getting pressure on quarterback Julian Sayin before he can find the all-world receiver.
In the 2025 Big Ten title game, IU had 14 pressures on Sayin including five sacks.
Even with a defensive performance like that, the Hoosiers won’t stop Smith.
They can only hope to eliminate the wow-factor.
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