‘Playing at a Ridiculously High Level,’ ‘Outpacing DeVonta Smith’s Heisman Season’ — Bruce Feldman, Jon Rhoades Size Up Jeremiah Smith Before Indiana
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Jeremiah Smith’s season has the Ohio State receiver measured against the best the college game has ever produced.
NBC Sports posted a segment Monday with a headline saying Bruce Feldman, a reporter for The Athletic and FOX Sports, called the junior the best college receiver ever.
On the show Not So Fast, Feldman also broke down Georgia vs. Alabama and Texas. The segment arrives five days before Ohio State (5-1) plays at unbeaten Indiana.
Bruce Feldman Highlights Jeremiah Smith’s Ridiculously High Level of Play
Feldman had been writing about Smith before the segment aired. In a post Saturday morning, he wrote that his Week 6 story had rival coaches weighing in on how Smith and quarterback Julian Sayin “are playing at a ridiculously high level right now.”
The post also quoted an unnamed rival coach, who said, “I think Ohio State is head and shoulders ahead of the next-best Big Ten team.” A day earlier, Feldman promoted the same story by pointing to Smith’s greatness.
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Smith has 48 catches for 916 yards and 11 touchdowns through six games.
That total includes 11 catches for 206 yards and two scores at Iowa on Oct. 3. Pro Football Network’s CFB WR Impact grade has Smith at 96.6 this season, second of 602 qualified FBS wide receivers.
On Friday, Jon Rhoades, host of the Buckeye Huddle podcast, compared Smith’s start with that of another Smith, writing, “Jeremiah Smith is outpacing DeVonta Smith’s Heisman season by a pretty wide margin.”
Smith added to that pace the next day in a 45-16 win over Maryland, catching four passes for 93 yards and scoring on throws of 33 and 40 yards from Sayin, who threw four touchdown passes.
Smith Measured Against Calvin Johnson Before Ohio State Visits Indiana
The comparisons reach well past DeVonta Smith. Ranking Smith ahead of Calvin Johnson and Randy Moss as a college receiver Saturday night, one fan wrote, “He is a much better college WR than Calvin Johnson. Moss played a single season in the MAC and Jeremiah Smith will be more productive this year than him.”
Not every Ohio State fan is ready to go that far. One urged people Saturday evening to “calm down with ‘the best college player ever’ and ‘best college WR ever’ talks” while still calling Smith the best receiver Ohio State has ever had.
Smith has six regular-season games left to add to his totals, including trips to Indiana and USC and a home game against Oregon.
Ohio State’s only loss came 24-23 at Texas on Sept. 12, when Smith had eight catches for 164 yards and a touchdown.
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The Buckeyes, 3-0 in the Big Ten, are back on the road Saturday at noon ET against Indiana (6-0, 3-0) at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
PFN’s College Football Playoff Meter, updated Sunday, gives Ohio State a 56.4% chance to win Saturday’s game and Indiana an 81.2% chance to make the playoff.
The meter puts Ohio State’s own playoff chances at 80.9%, rising to 93.7% with a win and falling to 64.4% with a loss.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.
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