It's hard to imagine a more impactful freshman season than what Jeremiah Smith pulled off at Ohio State in 2024. The hype began before he even stepped foot on campus, and only got louder though spring practice and then into fall camp. It didn't take long to realize that it was very much for real: Smithi put up 92 yards and two scores on six catches in his first collegiate game and never looked back, putting up 1,315 yards in all. The cherry on top? Three monster games against Tennessee, Oregon and Notre Dame to lead the Buckeyes to a College Football Playoff national championship.
But despite all the accolades, despite all the jaw-dropping highlights and eye-popping numbers and championship hardware, there was one thing Smith's first season in Columbus was missing. And it just so happens to be the most important thing of all: a win over Michigan.
Ohio State's fourth straight loss to the Wolverines was the fly in the ointment of an otherwise magical year. So it's no surprise that, as Smith gets ready for his encore in 2025, the School Up North is at the top of his list. But the former five-star decided to take things one step further in an interview on Tuesday, calling his shot not just this season but next as well.
“I’m not a sore loser, but I hate losing, and losing to that team up north was pretty crazy,” Smith told The Athletic's Manny Navarro. “In the end, I think it really helped us play the way we did in the playoffs. But I didn’t want to go to Ohio State and lose to that team up north. I just hate them. Just something about them. For the next two years, I promise you, I will not lose to them. I can’t lose to them in the next two years.”
Jeremiah Smith has called his shot.https://t.co/g4iqDKfmLA pic.twitter.com/B8uIr7FIhO
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) July 1, 2025
You have to admire Smith's confidence, and he's certainly proven that he's more than talented enough to back it up. But Ohio State hasn't been lacking for big talk about Michigan over the last four years. What they have lacked is the ability to translate that talk to the field, and Smith's latest quote just shows that Ryan Day's team hasn't really changed its approach.
Ohio State needs results, not talk, to end Michigan losing streak
For the entirety of this losing streak, various Buckeye stars have vowed that they would be the class to restore order against the Wolverines, that surely Ohio State couldn't keep losing. And yet, lose they did, time and time and time and time again. The program's approach in recent years under Day has been full of bluster, but short on composure when the chips were down and it was time to make a play with the game on the line.
Granted, Smith is one of the best players to come through Columbus in quite some time, and his big-game credentials hardly need burnishing after the playoff run he put up this winter. And it's hard to get on him too much for a five-catch, 35-yard performance in his Michigan debut, considering Ohio State's questionable (to put it lightly) gameplan and Will Howard's head injury.
But, even coming off a national championship, it still feels like Ohio State is protesting a little too much, like they're trying to reassert themselves through the sheer force of oxygen. We're long past the time for guarantees here. To paraphrase a former Buckeye head coach, the only thing that matters is what Smith and his teammates do 151 days from now in Ann Arbor, when they'll have the chance to actually prove that this time is different. Until then, it just sounds like more of the same.