Jeremiah Smith spent Saturday afternoon doing the kind of stuff that makes a five-word LeBron James tweet feel like a perfectly reasonable reaction.
Ohio State’s star receiver torched No. 14 Iowa for 11 catches, 206 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-14 road win at Kinnick Stadium. By the time the Buckeyes started taking knees, Smith had climbed to the top of Ohio State’s career receptions and receiving touchdown lists too.
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“THROW IT TO 4! #HEISMAN,”James wrote.
James has never been shy about his Ohio State fandom, and Saturday gave him plenty to yell about. Smith caught a 12-yard touchdown just before halftime to tie Chris Olave’s school record with 35 career receiving scores. He blew past it in the third quarter with a 57-yard touchdown, giving him 36 before his junior season even reached the halfway point.
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The catch record went down too.
Smith entered Saturday with 196 career receptions, 10 shy of Emeka Egbuka’s Ohio State mark of 205. He finished with 11 grabs, pushing his career total to 207.
That means Smith now owns Ohio State’s career records for receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He broke the yardage record earlier this season and now has 3,381 career receiving yards.
The pace is getting silly. Smith needed only 34 career games to tie Olave’s touchdown record, then took one more catch in the second half to own it by himself. He is doing this in a program that has recently sent Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Egbuka to the NFL.
PFN’slatest 2027 mock draft already has Smith going No. 1 overall. That pick is getting harder to argue with every Saturday.
Jeremiah Smith Keeps Giving Heisman Voters More To Think About
Smith’s Heisman case was already rolling before Iowa.
He entered the weekend as one of the favorites after catching four touchdowns against Illinois last week. Then he went into Kinnick, faced one of the country’s better defenses and posted his second straight 200-yard game.
That gives Smith 23 catches, 423 yards and six touchdowns over his last two games. For a wide receiver trying to win an award dominated by quarterbacks, that is about as loud as a two-week stretch can get.
PFN’s latest availableWR Impact update still has Smith No. 4 nationally with a 95.7 grade.
Ohio State improved to 4-1 and handed Iowa its first loss of the season. Julian Sayin finished with 324 yards and three touchdowns, but nearly two-thirds of those yards went to Smith.
James’ message was only five words because there really was not much more to explain.
When No. 4 is breaking school records two at a time, throwing him the ball feels like a pretty good idea.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.
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