Nick Saban opines on whether Jeremiah Smith can lead Ohio State to national title

In Wednesday’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal contest between Ohio State and Oregon, one player stood out as the clear difference in the contest early on. That was wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

He was simply uncoverable. Much of the sports world came away raving about his performance.

Pat McAfee took things one step further on the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday afternoon, wondering out loud whether Smith is the kind of guy you can ride all the way to a national championship. The answer came in quickly from all-time legend Nick Saban.

“Oh I don’t think there’s any question about it,” Saban said. “When you have a mismatch player like that, Chuck (Pagano) knows this, when you’re a coach and you know you’ve got a go-to guy and they can’t guard the guy, from a quarterback standpoint I mean who makes who better? The receiver makes the quarterback better, the quarterback makes the receiver better. And you know when you’ve got a mismatch guy like this that he’s going to make plays in critical situations.”

Smith did it early and often on Wednesday afternoon. He even broke Cris Carter’s school record for most receiving yards in a game, tallying 187 yards on seven catches, adding two touchdown hauls in the process.

Again: uncoverable.

Nick Saban knows a thing or two about having a player that simply can’t be stopped, ala Jeremiah Smith.

“I mean we had Julio Jones back in, what, 2009 or whatever?” Saban said. “And he was that kind of player. And we had lots of first-round draft pick wide receivers, but he was the one guy you knew if you threw him the ball in a critical situation he was going to win and he was going to make the play. And I think that’s what they’ve got in this guy, No. 4.”

So far this season, Smith has logged 70 catches for 1,224 yards and 14 touchdowns, while also rushing for 52 yards and a score. And if Saban is right, he’ll have two more games to add to that tally.