Joel Klatt makes the case for Jeremiah Smith as the best wide receiver in college football

Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams may have set social media ablaze with his performance against Georgia, but FOX’s Joel Klatt was smitten by Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith over the weekend.

Both freshman wide receivers have stood out among their peers throughout the 2024 campaign thus far, and Smith continues to put on a show each time he steps on the field for the Buckeyes. He’s scored in every game so far, and after having a receiving and rushing touchdown against Michigan State, Klatt waxed poetic about the Ohio State star.

“Up in East Lansing, Jeremiah Smith was going bonkers,” Klatt said, regarding Smith’s game against the Spartans, via The Joel Klatt Show. “I talked about Ryan Williams and how special he was at the beginning of this show, the freshman receiver for Alabama, and he is special. Jeremiah Smith is wild. He had two of the best catches that we’re going to see in the entire season in college football. He now has six total touchdowns in the first five games of his career. The guy is absolutely insane. He is physically the most gifted person on the football field, every time he’s on the field. He’s fast. He’s got incredible body control. He’s a great worker. He’s got a phenomenal attitude, and his hands are unreal.

“Let me just put it to you this way, if I’m a GM right now, okay, and in college football, GMs are like, this is all the rage, because you’ve got to put together a roster, if I’m putting together a roster right now in college football, and someone tells me, ‘Hey, you get the first pick of wide receivers, any wide receiver in the country, you can put them on your team,’ I would sit back and be like, ‘Wow, embarrassment of riches,’ because there are like, incredible players out there, incredible players. Jeremiah Smith is my pick. If I have the first choice of any receiver in the country right now to draft onto my team, it’s Jeremiah Smith.

“All due respect to these other great ones, and they are great. They are great. … Jeremiah Smith is different, guys. He is totally different. In a school that just produced first rounder after first rounder after first rounder, and these guys that are excelling and dominating at the NFL level, he’s better than all of them, and it’s blowing my mind. It’s blowing my mind. He is the best player on the field every time he walks out there, and he’s proving that.”

On the season so far, Jeremiah Smith has amassed 19 catches for 364 yards and five touchdowns, while also adding one rushing touchdown to his resume. His next chance to backup Joel Klatt’s assertion will be against Iowa on Saturday, and if he can continue his scoring onslaught, he won’t stay under the radar any longer.