Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Will Jeremiah Smith Break More Ohio State Records In 2025?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Wednesday, February twelfth time,
- 0:03Speaker 1: your host Tom Moore. The Texas game is in one
- 0:06Speaker 1: hundred and ninety nine days. The game against Michigan in
- 0:08Speaker 1: two hundred and ninety days. If you are planning your
- 0:11Speaker 1: next event, you should make it unforgettable with Grateful Griddle,
- 0:14Speaker 1: Columbus's favorite food truck serving up smash burgers, gourmet sandwiches,
- 0:18Speaker 1: and good vibes. Book you're catering today at Grateful Griddle,
- 0:21Speaker 1: oh dot com. We are talking Ohio state wide receivers today,
- 0:27Speaker 1: joined by Tony Gurderman at Buckehiddle dot com. Tony, you
- 0:29Speaker 1: and I have been in the YouTube business and the
- 0:31Speaker 1: podcast business for a while. Now, I'm going to tell
- 0:35Speaker 1: you the names of the four wide receivers we're going
- 0:37Speaker 1: to be talking about on today's show. I'm going to
- 0:39Speaker 1: have you tell me which one you think I'm going
- 0:41Speaker 1: to put in the headline. All right, here are the
- 0:43Speaker 1: four names. Bryson Rodgers, Brandon Innis, Carnel Tait and Jeremiah Smith. Tony,
- 0:49Speaker 1: take as long as you need to think about who
- 0:51Speaker 1: I might be putting in the headline for the show.
- 0:54Speaker 2: Tom, we got a pretty good idea that you're going
- 0:56Speaker 2: to put Jeremiah Smith's name in the headline, So now
- 0:58Speaker 2: I feel obligated to talk about them, or else I wouldn't,
- 1:02Speaker 2: we would just move on. But since I know you're trying,
- 1:05Speaker 2: you're always trying to get clicks, and you're trying to
- 1:07Speaker 2: get the views, I don't know, I don't know why
- 1:09Speaker 2: you'd want to get views on the YouTube. But if
- 1:12Speaker 2: we must talk about Jeremiah Smith, fine, but can we
- 1:15Speaker 2: make it quick? I mean, is there much to talk about?
- 1:18Speaker 1: Well, here's what I was going to talk about with
- 1:21Speaker 1: Jeremiah Smith, and we'll go through. And this is a show.
- 1:24Speaker 1: We're looking at the four guys who played a decent
- 1:27Speaker 1: amount and played some meaningful snaps last year. I know,
- 1:30Speaker 1: you know Bryson Rogers and Brandon Innis did not put
- 1:32Speaker 1: up huge numbers, but they were guys who you saw
- 1:34Speaker 1: playing in the College Football playoff and in kind of
- 1:37Speaker 1: meaningful situations at times. So we're kind of do lumping
- 1:40Speaker 1: them in with the returning receivers. There's enough guys who
- 1:43Speaker 1: were not in that group who didn't play a whole
- 1:45Speaker 1: heck of a lot, or guys who are new this
- 1:47Speaker 1: year who we're going to do a separate show with them,
- 1:49Speaker 1: sort of doing a spring preview. But first of all,
- 1:51Speaker 1: these four guys we're going to as you, as you
- 1:53Speaker 1: correctly surmised, We're going to start with Jeremiah Smith. I'm
- 1:56Speaker 1: just going to read his stat line from his true
- 1:58Speaker 1: freshman season again Crewe freshman season. Seventy six receptions, one
- 2:04Speaker 1: three hundred and fifteen yards, fifteen touchdowns. Those numbers. Just
- 2:09Speaker 1: put those in some historical context for once again drew
- 2:12Speaker 1: freshman Jeremiah Smith. That is fifth all time in Ohio
- 2:15Speaker 1: state history in a single season. For receptions, fourth all
- 2:19Speaker 1: time in Ohio state history in single season four yardage,
- 2:22Speaker 1: second all time behind only Terry Glenn in touchdowns in
- 2:26Speaker 1: a single season. And yeah, I can hear people going, yeah,
- 2:29Speaker 1: but he had sixteen get true. I'm going to again
- 2:32Speaker 1: repeat the phrase true freshman. So, Tony, my question to you,
- 2:36Speaker 1: I don't think there's much to talk about with him
- 2:38Speaker 1: in terms of springball. Is Jeremiah Smith going to break
- 2:42Speaker 1: any of these single season records this year coming up
- 2:45Speaker 1: as a sophomore. And I will read those numbers to you.
- 2:48Speaker 1: Ninety five receptions, one thousand, six hundred and one yards
- 2:52Speaker 1: and seventeen touchdowns. Does Jeremiah Smith break any of the
- 2:57Speaker 1: single season Ohio State receiving records year?
- 3:01Speaker 2: Well, that depends on does he drop his first pass
- 3:04Speaker 2: of the year like he did as a rookie as
- 3:05Speaker 2: a true freshman. I mean, let's not forget all of
- 3:07Speaker 2: these accolades dropped his first pass. Imagine what a season
- 3:11Speaker 2: could have been with that catch and like a seventy
- 3:13Speaker 2: yard run and a touchdown. But of those, I think
- 3:17Speaker 2: the best chance is the touchdowns. And really I'm wondering,
- 3:23Speaker 2: like what kind of defenses do we see against Jeremiah Smith?
- 3:27Speaker 1: Now?
- 3:28Speaker 2: Is it going to be what Texas did?
- 3:30Speaker 1: Like?
- 3:30Speaker 2: Do you change what you do for Jeremiah Smith in
- 3:35Speaker 2: Ohio State? Can you change what you do? So I'm
- 3:39Speaker 2: gonna be fascinated to see how teams handle him, because
- 3:42Speaker 2: if you are a new starting quarterback in Ohio State's
- 3:45Speaker 2: going to have a new starting quarterback, you're telling me
- 3:47Speaker 2: you're not gonna be looking at guy's way. And then
- 3:50Speaker 2: if there are two guys over there and you've got
- 3:52Speaker 2: Cardinal Tape or you've got Brandon Innison, We'll get to
- 3:54Speaker 2: those guys. But for a young quarterback, it would be
- 3:58Speaker 2: really difficult not too lean on am I A. Smith.
- 4:00Speaker 2: Think back to the way com Accord would lean on
- 4:04Speaker 2: Marvin Harrison Junior. And you've got somebody that everybody knows
- 4:08Speaker 2: is much better than Marvin Harrison Junior. Maybe one day,
- 4:12Speaker 2: but like there's there's a it would be difficult not
- 4:16Speaker 2: to throw to him, basically, But also, like what are
- 4:19Speaker 2: defenses doing because they're not they just can't play him
- 4:21Speaker 2: straight up? Right, I mean, I'm expecting I'm expecting the
- 4:25Speaker 2: numbers to come down a little just because defenses are
- 4:28Speaker 2: more aware, But like how long the defenses need to
- 4:32Speaker 2: be before they fully respected him? Like they should have
- 4:35Speaker 2: caught on a little bit sooner than they did, right.
- 4:38Speaker 1: They certainly should have. I do think there's a certain
- 4:40Speaker 1: amount of this where if you're Northwestern or if you
- 4:45Speaker 1: were Rutgers or Maryland or whoever, where you know the
- 4:51Speaker 1: realistically you know coming in like yeah, you know we're
- 4:54Speaker 1: a thirty one point underdog for a reason. Are you
- 4:56Speaker 1: completely you know, spending a whole week redoing everything for
- 5:00Speaker 1: a game where it's like, well maybe if we do,
- 5:02Speaker 1: if we play our cards just right, someone else can
- 5:05Speaker 1: beat us instead. I mean, I guess Northwestern kind of
- 5:08Speaker 1: did that because that was the Carneal tape two touchdown game,
- 5:10Speaker 1: so they kind of did that. But I don't know
- 5:14Speaker 1: that that's something that in a seven day quick turnaround
- 5:18Speaker 1: where it's not a little bit of an extended thing
- 5:20Speaker 1: like in the college football playoff, if you can reshuffle
- 5:23Speaker 1: things quite as much. But yeah, I'm expecting to see,
- 5:26Speaker 1: you know, the college football equivalent of a box and
- 5:29Speaker 1: one or maybe a triangle and two against him as
- 5:31Speaker 1: often as they possibly can can run that out without completely,
- 5:37Speaker 1: you know, blowing up their season and wasting a week
- 5:39Speaker 1: of practice and all that kind of stuff. But I
- 5:41Speaker 1: think there's also just you're going you're potentially not going
- 5:45Speaker 1: to see sixteen games for Ohio State, so that probably
- 5:48Speaker 1: takes those numbers down at least a little bit. And
- 5:51Speaker 1: you don't have a Mecca Abuca, so that probably takes
- 5:53Speaker 1: those numbers down at least a little bit. And we'll see,
- 5:56Speaker 1: you know, Will Howard to Julian say, and this time
- 5:59Speaker 1: last year you would have said, well, certainly that's going
- 6:01Speaker 1: to be a much more talented quarterback than in twenty
- 6:05Speaker 1: twenty five than twenty twenty four. And then Will Howard
- 6:07Speaker 1: exceeded all expectations, and we'll see how Will Howard, will
- 6:12Speaker 1: Howard's replacement, whether it's Julian Sayan or Lincoln Keyholes, plays
- 6:15Speaker 1: out this year. But I'm with you in that I
- 6:19Speaker 1: think that you're probably not going to see any of
- 6:21Speaker 1: those records broken. But if you do, the order of
- 6:24Speaker 1: likelihood is probably touchdowns, then yards, then receptions. Ninety five
- 6:29Speaker 1: receptions is just a ton of receptions. And with the
- 6:32Speaker 1: Wayo House it was sort of managing snaps and all
- 6:35Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. This year, you're probably not going
- 6:38Speaker 1: to see as many you know, you're not going to
- 6:41Speaker 1: see as many targets and as many receptions. That was
- 6:44Speaker 1: what I think it was Paris Campbell and that was
- 6:46Speaker 1: in twenty.
- 6:47Speaker 2: Eighteen, Jackson Smith, the Jigma.
- 6:50Speaker 1: Oh it was Jackson spit a jigba Okay, yeah, but
- 6:53Speaker 1: again that was that was a year where the defense
- 6:55Speaker 1: was the point stands, whether it was Paris Campbell in
- 6:59Speaker 1: twenty eighteen or Jackson Smith and Jigbit in twenty twenty one. Boy,
- 7:02Speaker 1: if the defense is very bad, then you're going to
- 7:04Speaker 1: have to do a lot more throwing and have a
- 7:06Speaker 1: lot more offense and a lot more everything. So you know,
- 7:09Speaker 1: it's probably not a coincidence that those two guys were
- 7:11Speaker 1: both right at the top of that pile. So yeah,
- 7:14Speaker 1: and then Jackson Smith a Jigbo sixteen oh six, that
- 7:16Speaker 1: was his mark as well in twenty twenty one. So
- 7:20Speaker 1: all right, So there's there's your Jeremiah Smith talk for
- 7:22Speaker 1: the week. Don't worry, it will probably not be the
- 7:24Speaker 1: last time we talked about Jeremiah Smith, even before spring
- 7:27Speaker 1: football starts. Next up, we're going to talk about Carnel
- 7:29Speaker 1: Tate and his numbers look fantastic for his second year
- 7:33Speaker 1: receiver at Ohio State. Fifty two catches, seven hundred and
- 7:35Speaker 1: thirty three yards, four touchdowns. Those historically are great numbers.
- 7:39Speaker 1: They get completely swallowed up by Jeremiah Smith numbers and
- 7:42Speaker 1: Mecha Bbugas numbers. Both of those guys were over a
- 7:45Speaker 1: thousand yards and ten touchdowns each. So in comparison, that's
- 7:48Speaker 1: a relatively you know, a little bit of a quiet season,
- 7:52Speaker 1: but again in historical context, that's an enormous season by
- 7:55Speaker 1: Ohio State standard. So it feels like he's won where
- 7:59Speaker 1: I look at his numbnumbers and I go over over
- 8:02Speaker 1: and over for him. In the twenty twenty five season.
- 8:05Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. I'm just wondering, like, what are whose
- 8:09Speaker 2: numbers are? Like, is a Mecca Bukaz season a baseline
- 8:13Speaker 2: for carneal Tate or is it the Mecca's yards and
- 8:18Speaker 2: Jeremiah's catches because those numbers are going to go somewhere,
- 8:21Speaker 2: and certainly they'll trickle down past Carnel Tait as well.
- 8:25Speaker 2: But yeah, over over fifty, I'm thinking thinking close to
- 8:31Speaker 2: seventy catches and you know, eleven hundred yards something like that.
- 8:35Speaker 2: And because you gotta remember, for as much attention as
- 8:39Speaker 2: going to be on Jeremiah Smith, like, there's gonna be
- 8:43Speaker 2: less attention on Carnal Tate and defenses are gonna be like, well,
- 8:46Speaker 2: he's the lesser of two evils. It's like, well, the
- 8:48Speaker 2: lesser of two evils just went for one hundred and
- 8:50Speaker 2: twenty yards on you guys, two touchdowns, So I don't
- 8:53Speaker 2: know how lesser he is. He said, he looks pretty
- 8:55Speaker 2: evil though, based on what he's doing to your box score,
- 8:58Speaker 2: and he's gonna have all kinds of opportunities year.
- 9:01Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know this is something where we had
- 9:03Speaker 1: this conversation a bunch during the playoff where you looked
- 9:05Speaker 1: at all at the opposing team's two corners and said, well,
- 9:08Speaker 1: if they put their number one corner on Jeremiah Smith,
- 9:10Speaker 1: and sometimes they did, and sometimes they did and sometimes
- 9:12Speaker 1: they'd take the second guy and you know, try and
- 9:15Speaker 1: you give him some help. But if you figure your
- 9:18Speaker 1: number one corner is going to be on Jeremiah Smith
- 9:20Speaker 1: more often than not, most opposing teams are not going
- 9:23Speaker 1: to have a second corner as good as Ohio State's
- 9:25Speaker 1: second wide receiver, and they're certainly not going to have
- 9:27Speaker 1: a third corner as good as ohios To third wide receiver.
- 9:30Speaker 1: So yeah, I do. I do expect a nice little
- 9:33Speaker 1: bump there, for a nice little bump for him in
- 9:37Speaker 1: terms of what this next season could mean statistically. Next up,
- 9:41Speaker 1: we're going to Brandon Innis fourteen catches, one hundred and
- 9:45Speaker 1: seventy six yards, one touchdown, which it felt. It feels
- 9:49Speaker 1: like his role on this team was probably bigger than
- 9:52Speaker 1: those numbers would suggest. You look at those numbers and
- 9:55Speaker 1: it's like, well, he probably just played in garbage time.
- 9:58Speaker 1: It was like, no, I mean, he had a really
- 10:00Speaker 1: really consequential catch in the National Championship Game and had
- 10:03Speaker 1: some big plays, you know, throughout the year. He had
- 10:06Speaker 1: some some big touchdowns in meaningful he had his touchdown
- 10:10Speaker 1: came in a meaningful moment, He had some big receptions
- 10:12Speaker 1: in meaningful moments. He was he played a bigger role
- 10:14Speaker 1: than you would expect. And now you know now that
- 10:17Speaker 1: that the meddlesome Mecca Ibuka is out of the way,
- 10:20Speaker 1: the slot is all his unless they want to play
- 10:22Speaker 1: someone else there.
- 10:23Speaker 2: Well, yeah, they've they'll have him as that main slot guy,
- 10:27Speaker 2: but then they're also going to move CARNELLL. Tate and
- 10:30Speaker 2: Jeremiah Smith in there as well and rotate some guys.
- 10:33Speaker 2: But he's been a pretty patient person and from enrolling.
- 10:38Speaker 2: You wonder if would he have seen the field more
- 10:40Speaker 2: if he had enrolled early as a true freshman rather
- 10:43Speaker 2: than waiting until June because that's when his high school
- 10:45Speaker 2: would let him, you know, enroll. So he kind of
- 10:48Speaker 2: got a late start quote unquote compared to a lot
- 10:51Speaker 2: of guys, and and then also being stuck behind the
- 10:56Speaker 2: roster that he has been so far. But now now
- 10:59Speaker 2: there's nothing holding him back and so he's going to play.
- 11:02Speaker 2: I'm fascinated to see what he does. Is he can
- 11:06Speaker 2: he become a big play guy, or is he you know,
- 11:09Speaker 2: eleven twelve yards a catch type of guy that is
- 11:13Speaker 2: just tough to cover in the slot, but he catches
- 11:15Speaker 2: it and then gets tackled. Can he be something after
- 11:18Speaker 2: the catch? Can he do some things like that? So
- 11:21Speaker 2: I think he's he's a different type of slot receiver
- 11:24Speaker 2: than Ohio State has had or that they've used recently,
- 11:27Speaker 2: because he's not a Mecca a Buka. He's a little
- 11:29Speaker 2: bit different. So I'm interested to see how they use
- 11:32Speaker 2: him and how much, you know, how much do they
- 11:33Speaker 2: use him with the jet sweeps and things like that,
- 11:35Speaker 2: does he carry the ball? You know, what all do
- 11:37Speaker 2: they do with them? And you know, we see him
- 11:39Speaker 2: all the time celebrating everybody's touchdown. He's an incredible energy giver.
- 11:43Speaker 2: So like he's he's an exciting guy and he's going
- 11:46Speaker 2: to be excitable as well.
- 11:48Speaker 1: Yeah, he's someone who we I mean, I remember watching
- 11:51Speaker 1: him at a camp in what the summer of twenty
- 11:53Speaker 1: twenty two, maybe twenty twenty one. I mean it has
- 11:56Speaker 1: been a while and watching him just just I mean
- 12:00Speaker 1: torch people in the open field, just in those one
- 12:03Speaker 1: on one drills. And he came to Ohio State relatively
- 12:08Speaker 1: polished as far as high school receivers go. He was
- 12:10Speaker 1: one of those guys on that South Florida Express team,
- 12:12Speaker 1: so he's been going up against really really high level
- 12:14Speaker 1: competition for quite a while. He's also someone who, as
- 12:18Speaker 1: you said, enrolled later, didn't he was a June and rollie,
- 12:21Speaker 1: not a spring and rollie. That always does set you
- 12:23Speaker 1: back a little bit. You wonder if he would be
- 12:26Speaker 1: you know, his second year stats might have looked like
- 12:28Speaker 1: his first year. His second year stats might have been
- 12:30Speaker 1: his first year stats if he didn't rolled early. But
- 12:33Speaker 1: you know he is. He is right on time now
- 12:35Speaker 1: for a potentially far, far bigger role this year. Someone
- 12:39Speaker 1: else who could be in line for a far bigger
- 12:41Speaker 1: role this year. Fourth guy we need to talk about,
- 12:43Speaker 1: and that is Bryson Rodgers. Another guy who five catches
- 12:47Speaker 1: forty six yards and that you know, that's like, okay,
- 12:49Speaker 1: well that's that's clearly you were just you never played
- 12:52Speaker 1: a meaningful snap and it's like, no, you we saw
- 12:54Speaker 1: Bryson Rodgers in I think Bryson Rodgers played. He was
- 12:58Speaker 1: on the field for one of the touchdowns against Penn
- 13:00Speaker 1: State that might have been the Brandon in a touchdown.
- 13:03Speaker 1: I think where you know, you saw these guys. They
- 13:06Speaker 1: were getting rotation, they're getting snaps bright Brian Hartlin was
- 13:09Speaker 1: rotating these guys and it was not just okay, it's
- 13:12Speaker 1: the fourth quarter against Western Michigan, Like these these are
- 13:15Speaker 1: guys who are trusted and it's just a matter of
- 13:18Speaker 1: it's hard to get on the field with these guys
- 13:19Speaker 1: ahead of you. Bryson Rodgers looked like he was out
- 13:22Speaker 1: the door this time last year, ended up coming back,
- 13:25Speaker 1: took on a bigger role last year and seems like
- 13:27Speaker 1: he could be in line for a bigger role again
- 13:29Speaker 1: this fall.
- 13:30Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, everybody moves up a spot, but he's
- 13:32Speaker 2: also he can I think you can see playing time
- 13:36Speaker 2: like there's a horizon there that you can you can achieve.
- 13:38Speaker 2: So it'd be interesting to see how much he attacks that.
- 13:41Speaker 2: But he's the guy that could play inside nowside has
- 13:42Speaker 2: been mostly inside who his Ohio State career, but is
- 13:46Speaker 2: also a guy that has been talked about with the
- 13:49Speaker 2: like the in house record breaking targeting numbers where quarterback
- 13:55Speaker 2: throws to him, it's completed at a higher level than
- 13:57Speaker 2: any any receiver before him, Like this was this is
- 14:01Speaker 2: something that was talking about I think is true freshman
- 14:03Speaker 2: year of twenty twenty three, didn't hear much about it
- 14:06Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four. I don't think, but I don't
- 14:08Speaker 2: I don't expect that he dropped off the face of
- 14:10Speaker 2: the earth in terms of successful targets. So he's a
- 14:13Speaker 2: guy that has been able to get open. I saw him,
- 14:19Speaker 2: like somebody wrote about him one of the may maybe
- 14:21Speaker 2: a level Wars one of the outlets wrote about him
- 14:24Speaker 2: and quoted him as saying, like, you know, I think
- 14:27Speaker 2: I'm one of the best route runners in the nation,
- 14:29Speaker 2: and he quote tweeted He's like, I misspoke, I'm the best,
- 14:32Speaker 2: you know, something to that effect. So also showing that
- 14:36Speaker 2: confidence that you kind of need to really make your
- 14:38Speaker 2: mark in the Ohio State receiver room.
- 14:41Speaker 1: Yeah, leading the team at one point in efficiency of targets,
- 14:44Speaker 1: and leading the team also in confidence, which in that
- 14:47Speaker 1: wide receiver room there is not a lack of confidence.
- 14:49Speaker 1: So it is a high praise, high praise. Indeed, we'll
- 14:53Speaker 1: see what his role looks like this fall. But he's
- 14:55Speaker 1: going to have to keep working as well as as
- 14:58Speaker 1: all four of those guys are, because there are some
- 15:00Speaker 1: very very talented younger guys coming up behind them on
- 15:03Speaker 1: that depth chart. That's the thing about the time the
- 15:05Speaker 1: wide receiver room. The talent just keeps coming, and it
- 15:09Speaker 1: is you have to always keep working because you've got
- 15:12Speaker 1: you've got very talent guys coming behind you. And I
- 15:14Speaker 1: started saying tight end there because I was already thinking,
- 15:16Speaker 1: I wonder how much twelve personnel they're going to play
- 15:18Speaker 1: this year, because you got some really talented tight ends
- 15:21Speaker 1: in there as well, and so you might you might
- 15:23Speaker 1: lose some wide receiver snaps there as well. So well,
- 15:27Speaker 1: that's all stuff we'll be talking about plenty as we
- 15:29Speaker 1: go through spring football and as we head into the season.
- 15:32Speaker 1: There's plenty of time before then. And one of those things,
- 15:34Speaker 1: one of the things that can can help you fill
- 15:36Speaker 1: that time between now and then is a membership at
- 15:39Speaker 1: bucke huddle dot com for Tony Kevin and I cover
- 15:41Speaker 1: the team, Mark Arvers Recruiting, got our whole team with
- 15:43Speaker 1: Ex's and O's guruz there as well to make you
- 15:45Speaker 1: a smarter football fan, very fun and active community on
- 15:48Speaker 1: the huddle board persented by Jeff Ruby's Columbus And if
- 15:50Speaker 1: you have not got your national championship confetti yet, well
- 15:53Speaker 1: there is still a little bit left. We're getting down
- 15:55Speaker 1: towards the bottom of the bag. But if you want something,
- 15:58Speaker 1: you can become a member at bucke huddle dot com.
- 16:00Speaker 1: Instructions on how to get yours are on the huddle board,
- 16:02Speaker 1: presented by Jeff Ruby's Columbus. That will do it for today.
- 16:05Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
- 16:07Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.