Jeremiah Smith describes emotions of breaking Ohio State freshman receiving record

When true freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith enrolled early at Ohio State, the hype began of an 18-year-old who had the potential to be one of the greats at a position with plenty of rich tradition in Columbus. So far, Smith has been living up to the hype already just eight games into his college career.

Smith broke Buckeyes legend Chris Carter‘s school record for most receiving yards for a true freshman last week in the Buckeyes’ 20-13 win over Penn State. It was history that Smith set out to make and recently reacted to on Wednesday.

“It’s a blessing for sure, but just gotta keep working,” Smith said. “It’s something that’s been a goal of mine, when I first got here I wrote it down in January actually. Just something I’ll continue to work towards throughout the year.”

Smith was a five-star high school prospect and the No. 1 ranked overall player in the country for the 2024 class according to On3’s Industry Rankings. He’s also a player who lost his black stripe faster than any other freshman in Ohio State history after just four spring practices.

Since then, he’s caught 39 passes for 678 yards and eight touchdowns in his true freshman campaign. He’s also just one more score away from surpassing Carter’s freshman receiving touchdowns record as well. Carter is a Hall of Fame player who showed Smith some love on social media and called the freshman phenom “a legend already.”

“I seen the little stuff he posted on Twitter, can’t thank him enough for that. Thank you very much,” Smith said of Carter.

At 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, Smith looks more like a prospect for the upcoming NFL Draft than the true freshman that he is. Making incredible contested and one-handed catches this season as he’s displayed extreme athleticism along with plenty of other traits that the greatest wideouts possess.

But the scariest part for his opponents is he still has room to grow, at least two more seasons at the college level after this one, and his sights set on helping lead the Buckeyes to national championship heights this year.

“Not really I feel like there’s more stuff that I need to work on, stuff I definitely could be better at,” Smith said when asked about meeting his own expectations. “But you’ll see it for the next eight to nine games.”

Smith takes the field once again this weekend for the Buckeyes as they host Purdue on Saturday at noon ET.