Jeremiah Smith is the 🐐
Coming out of No. 5 Ohio State’s 31-14 victory over No. 14 Iowa, a lot of the conversation will be about Jeremiah Smith’s record-breaking performance, and rightfully so. With 11 catches, 206 yards, and 2 touchdowns, J.J. officially became the greatest receiver in program history, adding the career receptions and receiving touchdown records to the receiving-yard mark that he notched earlier this season.
I can intellectually comprehend that he is physically gifted, obscenely skilled, a tireless worker,
and a fierce competitor, but I still don’t know if I can understand just how dominant he is. Like, on his 57-yard, record-breaking score, even watching the all-22 view, it still boggles my mind how open he got.
He is uniquely special, and now has a legitimate case to be the greatest player in the history of Ohio State football. That seems hyperbolic, and perhaps it is, but given how quickly he has obliterated every major receiving record in school history, I don’t think it is unfair.
As Wide Receiver U, we’ve been able to witness countless incredible receivers over the years, but given everything that Jeremiah Smith has done in just two and a half years, I can’t think of anyone who has ever done it better. To quote “Hamilton,” how lucky we are to be alive right now.
I wish they could run the 2-minute offense all game
The Buckeyes got the ball with 1:48 left in the first half, leading the game 10-6. From there, Sayin led a nine-play, 84-yard touchdown drive in 1:36 of game time. As The Columbus Dispatch’s Joey Kaufman noted on social media, OSU has scored in the final 15 seconds of every game this season. Going into the half, the Buckeyes look exceptionally crisp, efficient, and decisive, so it got me thinking: can they just run the two-minute drill all game long?
Obviously, you aren’t going to get the same level of results running that offense as your full-time schematic philosophy. With time winding down in a half, defenses generally are looking to prevent the big plays, so they are more willing to concede underneath routes and 8- to 10-yard runs.
Therefore, I am not asking Arthur Smith to literally call the two-minute play sheet, but I would like to see more of the tempo and urgency that the offense moves with heading into halftime. For the past few seasons, Ryan Day has tried to minimize the number of plays OSU has run in an effort to preserve tread on the tires.
That has meant that the offense has moved slowly and methodically, and I get it in theory, but there is a reason that high-performance sports cars need to be opened up from time to time; the same is true for offenses. While clearly, the Buckeyes have been pretty elite on that side of the ball for the entirety of Ryan Day’s tenure, at times, it feels like they are just holding back and not making the most of all of the talent they have assembled.
To me, that is part of the reason that they struggled so mightily against Indiana and Miami at the end of the 2025-26 season. They had very little opportunity to operate at peak potential throughout the season, so when they had to turn things up a level, they couldn’t do it.
So, for the future potential of the team, and my general enjoyment of the game, I would like to see a little bit more two-minute drill pep in the step of the offense the rest of the season.
Both lines showing signs of life
While neither was perfect — the offensive line gave up four sacks and had about a bazillion false start penalties, the defensive line got gashed at times — I feel like we saw progress in the trenches on both sides of the ball from the Buckeyes. While I will go back and break it down more tomorrow, in real time, I was fairly impressed by the efforts.
The defense only gave up 238 yards, including just 39 on the ground, while sacking Iowa’s Hank Brown twice. The offensive line helped lead the Buckeyes to 160 yards on the ground, but 189 yards sack-adjusted. There will be time to analyze this game — especially since OSU is playing Maryland next Saturday — but earlier this week, I wrote about needing to see progress from the Buckeyes against Iowa, and on every non-special teams level, I think we saw that.
Again, there is still a ton of room for improvement; this game did give me confidence that things are moving in the right direction.
