Jeremiah Smith has presented opponents with matchup nightmares since arriving at Ohio State, overwhelming defensive backs with his size and speed.
But in each of the past two years, Texas has kept him in check.
Between the 2025 season opener and the teams’ earlier meeting in the College Football Playoff semifinals, Smith has combined for just seven receptions for 46 yards.
The modest production looms large ahead of their rematch in Austin on Sept. 12, as the Buckeyes look for ways to maximize the impact of their superstar receiver, arguably the best player in college football.
“It’s no mystery that when the ball is in his hands, good things happen,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said.
While Day said the Buckeyes would work to make sure Smith is a major
factor against the Longhorns, he has hardly been an afterthought in previous game plans. Texas has just sold out to stop him.
The Longhorns devoted significant attention to Smith in both games, using deep zone coverages to keep him from beating them over the top.
When they held Smith to one catch for 3 yards in the playoff semifinals, safety Michael Taaffe floated toward his side of the field to help in coverage.
Smith has not caught a pass deeper than 7 yards downfield against the Longhorns. Even as quarterback Julian Sayin found Smith touches last season, it was largely a mix of screens, curls and other short routes to the flats. The average depth of Smith’s 10 targets was a mere 3.7 yards, according to Pro Football Focus.
Smith also had two uncharacteristic drops against Texas last season, and he was still in the early stages of building chemistry with Sayin, who was in his debut as Ohio State’s starting quarterback.
“There were opportunities where I could have taken the ball toward him,” Sayin said. “I wouldn’t say they limited him in any aspect.”
The most glaring instance was on a fourth-and-1 at midfield on the Buckeyes’ opening drive. Sayin found tight end Max Klare toward the sideline, but Smith was open streaking downfield, having burst through a seam. Klare dropped the pass. One to Smith might have produced a touchdown.
Sayin and Smith were on the same page when the Buckeyes opened their season last weekend with a 56-3 win over Ball State. Smith caught eight passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone. He rested in the second half as the game grew lopsided, with Ohio State anticipating this week’s trip to Texas for a top-five matchup.
It remains to be seen how much Texas will follow the same approach after hiring Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator to replace Pete Kwiatkowski, who was fired by coach Steve Sarkisian in December after five seasons with the Longhorns.
Muschamp has not been a primary defensive coordinator since he was at Auburn in 2015, adding a new variable to the series with the uncertainty over how the Longhorns will evolve under his direction. The unknown has Day’s attention, as he acknowledged the limits to their pregame preparations. The Buckeyes will likely need to adjust after the ball is snapped.
“But we know that there will be a plan to stop Jeremiah,” Day said, “try to identify what that is and then have the plans in place for what that looks like.”
Day said Sayin will have a significant role in helping to identify Texas’ tendencies in game, a situation in which his year of starting experience could pay dividends.
“He’s got to recognize what’s going on and respond from there,” Day said. “All those things are part of our conversation as we put our game plan together.”
For as much as Texas has contained Smith, it has not been Ohio State's undoing. The Buckeyes won both meetings.
The Longhorns’ devotion to Smith allowed Carnell Tate to emerge as a weapon. Tate was the Buckeyes' leading receiver in both games, combining for nine catches for 136 yards and a touchdown.
Tate’s 40-yard scoring haul in last year’s 14-7 win gave the Buckeyes a commanding lead early in the fourth quarter.
“What makes a great player great is he makes everybody on the field better,” Day said, “and certainly Jeremiah does that.”
With Tate having left for the NFL, the Buckeyes have a new cast of receivers poised to benefit from the attention devoted to Smith, a group led by UTSA transfer Devin McCuin and returning slot receiver Brandon Inniss.
Ohio State defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr. said he has never seen an opponent contain Smith to this degree. Even when they were high school teammates years earlier at Chaminade-Madonna in Hollywood, Florida, Smith dominated defenses.
“Every team we went against, he put 150-plus on them,” Jackson said.
But Jackson said Smith has handled the frustrations against Texas well.
“He wants to make plays for sure,” Jackson said, “but as long as the team wins, he’s OK with it. That’s the type of person he is.”
Labeling Smith "arguably the best player in college football," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian spoke at length to the media on Sept. 7 about the Ohio State wide receiver.
“I think, one, he garners your attention and he deserves our attention," Sarkisian said. "... The challenge is, with him, it’s the size, speed, catch radius. He’s a big, physical guy who can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. It doesn’t always look like it, but it almost feels like it. You can feel his presence on the field.
"... This guy looks like Julio Jones. This guy looks like A.J. Brown physically. He can cover ground and then, because he’s so strong, 50-50 catches are difficult with him. You have to have a plan. But I think like anything when you have a plan against somebody like him, you can’t just throw all fastballs. As good as a fastball as you have, if that’s all you got, sooner or later you’re gonna hit it. We’ve got to be able to mix our pitches up in how we defend him and how we defend the scheme."
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com and follow him on @joeyrkaufman on X.
Staff reporter Dan Aulbach contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Jeremiah Smith has been quiet against Texas. Can Ohio State get him going in rematch?
