Top-five wide receiver performances since Ryan Day became head coach
The summer offseason is in full swing, and Lettermen Row is trying to survive it with our annual Position Week breakdowns. By the time all nine units and coaching staff at Ohio State have been covered, training camp and media days will nearly have arrived, and the return of football in the Horseshoe will be just around the corner. We’re continuing with our fourth positional week with an incredible collection of talent: the Buckeyes wide receivers.
COLUMBUS — Ohio State has had three first-round wide receivers in the last two drafts, and the Buckeyes have at least two more on the way in 2024.
Since Ryan Day was promoted to full-time head coach in 2019, wide receivers coach — and now first-year offensive coordinator — Brian Hartline has really hit his stride.
The Buckeyes are reeling in hordes of receiver talent, and it’s made for consistent star power at the position. That’s gone hand-in-hand with Heisman-caliber quarterback play, hence why Ohio State has thrived through the air under Day.
For Lettermen Row “Wide Receivers Week,” we’re ranking the top-five Buckeyes wideout performances since Day took over as Ohio State’s frontman.
1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba dazzles in Rose Bowl comeback win over Utah (2021)
What Jaxon Smith-Njigba did in the Rose Bowl is breathtaking. Smith-Njigba set the all-bowl record against Utah with 347 receiving yards. He also scored three touchdowns, the last of which gave the Buckeyes their first lead of the game with 4:22 remaining in the fourth quarter. Ohio State, down 14 points at the half and 10 points midway through the third quarter, came all the way back to beat the Utes. After Utah knotted the shootout up at 45-45, Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud marched the Buckeyes downfield, in part thanks to a pair of Smith-Njigba receptions. Then Noah Ruggles kicked a game-winning, 19-yard field goal as time expired. Smith-Njigba finished with a gaudy stat line of 15 catches, 347 receiving yards and three touchdowns. His 347 yards are also a single-game school record. He reset Terry Glenn’s mark of 253 receiving yards against Pitt in 1995.
2. Jaxon Smith-Njigba flashes makes Nebraska look silly (2021)
Smith-Njigba’s Rose Bowl was a fitting end to a monster 2021 season that saw him light up the box score with video game numbers. He rewrote the Ohio State record books with the most single-season receiving yards (1,606) and receptions (95). Before he popped off in the Rose Bowl, he nearly broke the Ohio State single-game receiving record in the regular season. It was the same game he first set the single-game Buckeyes receptions mark: his 15-catch, 240-yard, one touchdown outing at Nebraska. Smith-Njigba’s Pro Football Focus stats from that day are insane — he posted 124 yards after the catch, 5.11 yards per route run and 10 first down conversions. His lone touchdown came on a 75-yard, catch-and-run score, a key part of a 26-17 win in Lincoln. JSN did freaky things against Nebraska. The year before, he fooled everyone with a ridiculous, toe-tapping touchdown in the back of the end zone.
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3. Garrett Wilson does it all in four-touchdown performance against Purdue (2021)
A week after missing the aforementioned Nebraska game with concussion-like symptoms, Garrett Wilson announced his return against Purdue with four touchdowns. In the process, he became the first Buckeyes player to catch three touchdowns and score on another on the ground in the same game. His second score featured exquisite body control and a back-shoulder reception in the end zone. Then he took a jet sweep 51 yards to the house. His last touchdown was defiant: Wilson ran a slant, caught a rifling pass from Stroud, turned upfield, juked one Purdue defender and stiff armed another, en route to the paint. Wilson finished with 177 yards from scrimmage, including 10 receptions for 126 yards. He helped Ohio State return to dominant form in a convincing 59-31 win over the upset-minded Boilermakers.
4. Marvin Harrison Jr. is almost unstoppable in the Peach Bowl CFP semifinal vs. Georgia (2022)
Marvin Harrison Jr. is currently projected to be the first wide receiver picked in the top three of the NFL Draft since Calvin Johnson Jr. in 2007. Marvin Harrison Jr. is a Biletnikoff Award finalist. And if Marvin Harrison Jr. didn’t get hurt at the end of the third quarter of the Peach Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal, Ohio State might have another national championship banner hanging right now. He’s that good. Not only did Stroud boost his draft stock against Georgia in that CFP showdown, but so did Harrison, who reeled in five catches for 106 yards and two scores over just about three quarters. His touchdowns were off-script connections with Stroud, both requiring the 6-foot-4 Harrison to lay out in the end zone for impressive first-half scores. Harrison helped stake Ohio State to a 21-7 lead against the fifth-ranked scoring defense in college football. Who knows what he would have done in the fourth quarter. Instead, the Buckeyes let a 14-point lead slip in his absence.
5. Chris Olave gets redemption during payback win over Clemson in Sugar Bowl CFP semifinal (2020)
Ohio State played eight games during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. Chris Olave appeared in seven and posted two touchdowns in three of them, including the Buckeyes’ Sugar Bowl CFP semifinal victory over Clemson. Throw in six total receptions for 132 yards, and Olave served a significant role in quarterback Justin Field‘s payback performance against the Tigers, who knocked Ohio State out of the CFP the year before in heartbreaking fashion. Fields tied the single-game Buckeyes record with six touchdown passes, and Olave was on the receiving end of the longest of the bunch, a 56-yard bomb. It was the ultimate redemption for Olave, who took the blame for the previous year’s defeat to Clemson, which ended with a route-running miscommunication on Olave’s part and a game-ending Fields interception. Olave, Fields and the Buckeyes left no doubt in the 2020 rematch, though.
Honorable Mention: Marvin Harrison Jr. puts on show at Michigan State (2022)
Harrison broke onto the scene at the end of the 2021 season during the Rose Bowl, for which Olave and Wilson both opted out. He played second fiddle to Smith-Njigba’s historic night with three touchdowns of his own. Since, Harrison has scored a hat trick of touchdowns twice more, including at Michigan State last season. He was a nightmare matchup for Spartans cornerback Charles Brantley. Harrison owned Brantley in the same spot of the end zone for two of his touchdowns, first making reservations for six despite defensive pass interference and then reaching over Brantley while catching the ball at his shoelace for another score. He rounded out the day with seven grabs for 131 yards and three touchdowns.
