Ryan Day reacts to Jeremiah Smith breaking Ohio State freshman receiving touchdowns record

Ohio State pounded Purdue 45-0 on Saturday and freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith made some history in the process. The former five-star recruit had six catches for 87 yards and a touchdown against the Boilermakers, setting the Ohio State record for most receiving touchdowns by a freshman in the process.

Smith now has nine touchdowns on the year. The Ohio State freshman record was previously held by Cris Carter, who had eight touchdown receptions in 1984. After the game, Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day reacted to Smith’s record-setting year.

“Yea, he’s been consistent, and for a freshman, he does a great job every day of coming in and working hard,” Day said. “For a freshman, sometimes you hit that lull. He’s only been picking up momentum here.

“And it’s good, because there’s a bunch of guys in that room that are unselfish — Emeka, Carnell. It was good to see Emeka get one late here. But the No. 1 thing is to win, it’s not about touches.”

Jeremiah Smith now has 47 catches for 763 yards and nine touchdowns during his freshman season.

In addition to Smith, the whole Ohio State team played well against Purdue. Ryan Day challenged the Buckeyes to not have a hangover after a big win over Penn State last weekend and his team responded.

“Well, we wanted to be a little different in the fact that we had an emotional win last week, coming back, and not having a letdown, you know,” Day said. “We challenged them all week to come out, play physical early on in the game. I felt like we did that.”

Ohio State led 21-0 at the half and racked up 433 yards of offense, compared to 206 for Purdue.

“I felt like we won the middle eight there, played strong. Still a lot of things we’ve got to clean up across the board but good to see us respond,” Day said. “We want to be undefeated in November. We want to be undefeated here at Ohio Stadium. So we’ve got to get some rest tonight and then we’re on to Northwestern next week.”