Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith ‘excited’ to face hometown Hurricanes in Cotton Bowl
Jeremiah Smith knows there will be emotions.
The Ohio State Buckeyes’ star receiver has played on this stage and high before, but the opponent magnifies the matchup.
For the first time in his college career, Smith is facing his hometown team in the Miami Hurricanes.
And the meeting comes with high stakes as it’s a College Football Playoff quarterfinal, with No. 10 Miami facing No. 2 Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 31 (7:30 p.m.). The Buckeyes are looking to repeat as national champions, while the Hurricanes are looking to win their first title since the 2001 season.
Smith, a Miami Gardens native who became a superstar at powerhouse Chaminade-Madonna in Hollywood before beginning his college career, knows that he’ll need to stay level-headed and focused on the task at hand if he wants to help the Buckeyes win.
But the matchup is personal, so it’s a balancing act.
“I’m very excited to play the guys from back home,” Smith said. “It’s like a second home for me. I’m from there. I have good relationship with a lot of the coaches and a lot of the players on the team. ... I’ve got to worry about what’s in front of me, and that’s beating Miami.”
There was a time, however, when it looked like Smith might sign with the Hurricanes. His decision came down to the very end — “I was sitting there the last two minutes,” Smith said at his signing day ceremony back in December 2023 — before ultimately choosing the Buckeyes.
“It was really all just based on me and I wanted to go to a place where I think I’ll best be developed as a wide receiver and I think Ohio State is that place for me,” Smith said then.
It’s safe to say he has developed into one of college football’s most elite receivers.
He enters the Cotton Bowl game with 156 catches for 2,401 yards and 26 touchdowns over 28 career games. He was a finalist this season for the Biletnikoff Award given annually to college football’s top wide receiver after catching 80 passes for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns despite being hobbled down the stretch — he sustained a quad injury early in Ohio State’s game against UCLA on Nov. 15 that forced him to sit out the Rutgers game on Nov. 22 and limited him against Michigan on Nov. 29. He returned to form in the Buckeyes’ loss to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship, catching eight passes for 144 yards.
“Mind over matter,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “I remember sitting down and talking to him and saying, ‘You have to will yourself to be healthy.’ He was wearing it early for a couple days, not to get too far into it. And I could see it on his face. Jeremiah cares a lot about his team. He loves Ohio State. He loves his teammates. And he loves playing the game. And for that to be taken away from him was not a good thing. I looked him right in the eye and I said, ‘Listen, no matter, JJ, what happens, we’re going to go win that game with or without you. Now we need you, and we want you in the game.’ And it’s kind of like a weight got taken off his shoulders, and he willed himself to be healthy into that game and play in that game. And it’s tremendous. He just did an amazing job. It goes to show you, when you set your mind to something, you can get it done, and he did it.”
Now, the Hurricanes are tasked with defending him as they try to keep their season alive.
UM knows the challenge it has on its hands.
“He’s an NFL prototype player like right now,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said. “Probably [already was] last year.”
Added defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman: “He’s a big wide receiver. He’s got really good size and really good speed. He can make a big play at any point in the game, and they do a lot of things to get the football to him.”
But Miami will have to rely on the fact that it has contained some top-end playmakers this season.
The Hurricanes have faced five other receivers who recorded at least 800 receiving yards this season. Here’s how those players performed:
-Texas A&M’s Mario Craver: Seven catches on 10 targets for 92 yards for his best performance since the Aggies’ first three weeks of the season when he combined for 20 of his 59 catches, 443 of his 917 yards and all four of his TD. The bulk of that production against Miami, however, came on one busted coverage early in the game that went for 59 yards. Remove that, and he had 33 yards on six catches.
-Texas A&M’s KC Concepcion: Four catches on nine targets for a season-low 33 yards
-FSU’s Duce Robinson: Six catches on 11 targets for 87 yards (three of his catches for 53 yards came in the fourth quarter after Miami had taken a 28-3 lead).
-Louisville’s Chris Bell: Nine catches on 12 targets for 136 yards and two touchdowns. This was the main struggle for UM’s secondary this season against top-end talent, with Bell executing on crossing patterns and exposing coverage deficiencies over the middle of the field.
-USF’s Keshaun Singleton: Two catches on three targets for 39 yards.
But Smith has that extra motivation stewing inside him as he prepares to face his hometown team and keep a chance for a second national championship alive.
“When you have an opportunity to coach somebody like Jeremiah, it’s special because we knew in high school what he was,” Day said. “And everything that we talked about in recruiting, you’re seeing happen. And I think that’s the most important thing is when you say you’re going to do something for somebody, and they’re going to come in, and they say they’re going to do it at your school, when that comes together as one, it’s testimony. He’s done it. He and his family are special, and they mean a lot to this program. And I know this game will be important to him.”
.JPG)