Having one guy on your roster as good as Carnell Tate or Jeremiah Smith can take a team from good to great. Having two of them is an abundance that can shift the course of an entire season.
With these two players, it’s well within the realm of possibility that the Buckeyes will have the No. 1 wide receivers in both the 2026 and 2027 NFL Drafts (Tate is eligible in 2026, Smith in 2027). They don’t call it Wide Receiver U for nothing.
After Saturday’s game against Penn State, Smith went on the record
saying the duo is the ‘best in the country.” Tate has gone on the record with similar sentiments. So has head coach Ryan Day. Penn State’s head coach Terry Smith even went so far as to say they’re not just the best in the country—they’re the best in Ohio State history.
It’s hard to argue with that when they, along with consistently stellar performances from sophomore quarterback Julian Sayin, have made Ohio State’s offense seemingly unstoppable. Whether or not someone like Smith or Tate ever touches the ball, their presence on the field creates a threat for opposing defenses.
With two elite receivers, you have to pick your poison. Doubling up coverage to stymy one of them increases the other one’s chances of making a play. Defending both of them increases the risk of coverage error and, with additional weapons like tight end Max Klare on the field, makes it easier for the other ball carriers.
Eight games into the season, we’ve seen firsthand how Smith and Tate are opening things up for the Buckeye offense. It was especially potent during Saturday’s game, where the duo combined for 247 yards and three touchdowns on 11 catches, with each of them also logging a catch longer than 50 yards.
Because of this, I’ve spent a lot of time this season thinking about what makes this duo so special.
Of course there’s the raw athletic talent. You can’t make plays like they both did last Saturday (Smith when he turned a tipped ball into a one-handed touchdown catch and Tate with an elite 57-yard touchdown grab) without it. Both receivers have the speed, agility and hands to make themselves dangerous.
They’ve also sustained a high level of production so far this year. Smith leads the receiving corps in yards with 725 yards and 9 touchdowns on 55 receptions, while Tate leads in average yards per reception with 18.2 after netting 711 yards and 7 touchdowns on 39 carries.
Both rank in the top 15 receivers nationwide statistically, and together, they are formidable.
But there’s something else about these two that feels more intangible than their talent and stats. To me, it’s their unselfishness. While they’re both certainly aware of how their performance and stats affect things like awards or even their NFL Draft prospects, neither of them is placing those things above the needs of the team.
Smith, who is widely considered the best player in college football, seems happy to help the team make big plays not with receptions but by drawing guys off Tate. Tate, similarly, would be WR1 at any other school, yet he’s comfortable with his role in this tandem.
Neither seem particularly concerned about their Heisman prospects. It feels ludicrous that everyone is openly referring to Smith as the best player in college football, yet he’s not the Heisman frontrunner, but that’s a column for another day.
But while Smith might not be the frontrunner, Sayin’s odds, on the other hand, skyrocketed after this weekend. Sayin has been spectacular and would certainly be deserving of the Heisman if his play continues at this level, but his numbers and his highlight reel are also undoubtedly elevated by the guys on the other end of the ball.
Both Smith and Tate seem to be ok with that, but not every player would be. It speaks to who they are as athletes—and to the environment Coach Day is fostering—that the team comes first. In an era of transfer portals (which I am all for by the way) and NIL deals, it’s become easier and easier to put your own numbers and your own draft stock first.
Neither of them seem to be taking that bait. I suspect this unselfishness is a not-insignificant part of what makes them such a threat.
Everything they do is in service of the team and its larger goals. Even when Smith talked about that one-handed touchdown in his post-game interview, it was framed as, “I didn’t want Julian Sayin to throw an interception…so I just had to make a play.”
The play left even the announcers in awe, but to Smith, it was just about getting the job done for his team.
With the two of them on the field, defending the Buckeye offense makes it seem less like a game of football and more like a game of whack-a-mole, with new targets popping up at every turn. It’s enough to create imbalance for opposing defenses, throwing them off their game and tipping the scales heavily in Ohio State’s favor.
