You’re Nuts: What is the most memorable performance for an Ohio State wide receiver?
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On Saturday against Illinois, Jeremiah Smith had his best performance as a Buckeye, hauling in 12 passes for 217 yards and four touchdowns. The junior opened up the game with 123 receiving yards in the first quarter, which is the most by a Big Ten player in the last 20 years. By finding the end zone four times, Smith tied a school record for receiving touchdowns in a game, becoming the fifth Ohio State receiver to accomplish that feat.
With so many great wide receivers coming through Columbus over the years, there have been some great performances seen by Buckeye Nation. Some of those memorable games came in Big Ten contests, while others were regular-season non-conference tilts. There was one recent one that was in one of the more famous bowl games. Then there were some big performances that came from some receivers that weren’t household names.
Today we want to know what your most memorable performance from an Ohio State wide receiver is. With five Buckeye wideouts having scored four touchdowns in a game and there being six games where an Ohio State receiver went for at least 200 yards, there shouldn’t be a shortage of options to choose from. Your choice doesn’t even have to hit that marks; maybe there was a game that a Buckeye wide receiver took over that sticks with you.
Today’s question: What is the most memorable performance for an Ohio State wide receiver?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: Noah Brown against Oklahoma in 2016
The storm that pushed the kickoff of the battle between the Buckeyes and Sooners back an hour and a half wasn’t the only thing that rolled through Norman on one Saturday night in September back in 2016. Entering the third game of the 2016 season, Noah Brown had just five catches for 71 yards and a touchdown in his Ohio State career.
As a freshman, Brown caught one pass but was expected to compete for a starting spot heading into 2015 before breaking his tibia and fibula, which caused him to use a medical redshirt. In the opener against Bowling Green in 2016, Brown did find the end zone for the first time in the scarlet and gray.
Despite Ohio State jumping out to a 14-7 lead after 15 minutes, Noah Brown was quiet in the first quarter. Brown would make himself known early in the second quarter when he caught a 4-yard pass from J.T. Barrett just 40 seconds after the teams switched ends. The touchdown reception would only be the beginning for Brown.
With just over six minutes to go before half, the Buckeyes responded to an Oklahoma field goal with a 37-yard Barrett toss to Brown on the first play of the drive to give Ohio State a 28-10 lead. Then just before half, Brown made one of the most memorable catches in Buckeye history when he pinned the football against an Oklahoma defender’s back to record his third touchdown catch of the quarter and push Ohio State’s lead to 35-17.
Brown would pick things up in the second half with an 8-yard touchdown catch just five minutes after halftime to give the Buckeyes a commanding 42-17 lead. The receiver from New Jersey would finish with five catches for 72 yards and four touchdowns. The number of receptions and yardage might not be a lot but Brown took over a big game in one of college football’s most iconic stadiums.
Matt’s answer: Jaxon Smith-Njigba against Utah in the 2022 Rose Bowl
It should come as no surprise that a program known worldwide as Wide Receiver U (WRU for short) has produced so many absurdly talented wide receivers over the years that picking the most memorable individual performance generally requires mountains of research and hours of film study, especially if you are as old as I am and can remember the receiver heyday of the John Cooper Era. Terry Glenn had 253 yards and four touchdowns against Pitt. David Boston terrorized Michigan. Ted Ginn Jr. was a force of nature. Marvin Harrison Jr. had plenty of afternoons where he looked like the only adult playing against children.
But come on, with all due respect to those guys, Brett’s pick of Noah Brown, and Jeremiah Smith’s performance this past Saturday, it has to be Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the 2022 Rose Bowl, right?
There are great games, there are historic games, and then there are games where you look at the box score years later and assume that someone accidentally entered a “3” where a “2” was supposed to go.
JSN caught 15 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns in Ohio State’s 48-45 win over Utah — let me repeat in the ROSE BOWL. Three hundred and forty-seven! From one receiver! In the Granddaddy of Them All! His 347 yards set Ohio State and Rose Bowl records and, at the time, established an FBS bowl-game record.
And the best part (depending on your definition of “best”) is that Ohio State needed absolutely every freaking one of them.
The Buckeyes were without Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, their two future first-round receivers, and Utah spent much of the first half treating Ohio State’s defense like a collection of traffic cones. The Utes scored 35 points before halftime and at one point led 35-21. This wasn’t JSN padding his stats while Ohio State casually embarrassed some overmatched MAC team. The Buckeyes were desperately trying to keep pace in one of the most bonkers Rose Bowls ever played, and JSN just kept getting open.
Deep ball? Open. Crossing route? Open. Third down? Open. Utah knew C.J. Stroud wanted to throw him the football; the roughly 90,000 people in the Rose Bowl knew Stroud wanted to throw him the football; everyone watching at home knew Stroud wanted to throw him the football, and somehow Smith-Njigba was still running through the secondary like he was some forgotten fifth option that the defense was not worried about.
As I wrote following the game, the entire thing was “mind-bogglingly historic,” and I’m not sure four-plus years of hindsight has made it seem any less ridiculous. The performance was so overwhelming that Stroud throwing for a school-record 573 yards and six touchdowns somehow became the second-most memorable offensive accomplishment of the afternoon.
That might be my favorite part of JSN’s performance. This was an Ohio State offense that had Olave and Wilson for almost the entire season, yet Smith-Njigba had already emerged as its most productive receiver. Then, with those two stars sitting out the Rose Bowl, every bit of Utah’s attention should rightfully have shifted to JSN.
Smith-Njigba averaged more than 23 yards on his 15 catches, scored three touchdowns, and had a long reception of 52 yards. He didn’t simply have the greatest statistical receiving performance in Ohio State history; he did it on one of college football’s biggest stages while helping erase a two-touchdown deficit and deliver a Rose Bowl victory. And knowing how JSN is now dominating the NFL — joining Marvin Harrison Sr. as one of only two players in NFL history to have at least 400 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns through the first three games of a season — perhaps we should have recognized that his Pasadena performance wasn’t some statistical fever dream, but a preview of what was still to come.
Ohio State has always had great receivers, and Jeremiah Smith appears to be the best of the bunch. But for one afternoon? Nobody has ever done it better than Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
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