Smith has had at least 150 yards in four of Ohio State’s five games and gone over 200 in back-to-back weeks. Right now there’s only one thing holding down his averages: The fact that he came out early in a 59-3 win over Kent State with just 85 yards and no touchdowns. (Or maybe the Golden Flashes are the only team that can stop him!) 

Ohio State has produced more NFL receivers than any school in college football. The Buckeyes have the most receivers picked in the first round (12), and the top two receivers in the NFL right now in yardage (Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Chris Olave). Jeremiah Smith has surpassed all of their college careers in just over two-and-a-third seasons, leading the school in career yardage, receptions, and touchdowns.

Since the start of Smith’s career in 2024, he has 1,091 more yards than anybody else in college football. He has 50 percent more touchdowns than anybody else (36; nobody else has more than 24.)

Smith is three touchdowns and 237 yards away from the Big Ten record in those categories. Long story short, expect him to be the all-time Big Ten leader in touchdowns and yardage after next week’s matchup against Maryland. 

What makes Smith special as a prospect? IDK man, everything? He’s 6-foot-4, he’s clearly faster than everybody trying to guard him, and he can beat everything defenses try against him. Perhaps most importantly, he is historically good at that thing wide receivers have to do: catching the football. He’s aggressive about getting to the catch point, and often has to straddle the sideline after making acrobatic leaping maneuvers, and yet he always hangs on. Smith has just four drops among his hundreds of receptions. Per PFF, “his minuscule 1.8 drop rate is less than half that of any top-10 wide receiver drafted over the past decade.”

We also probably should give credit to Ohio State’s quarterback, Julian Sayin, for throwing Jeremiah Smith the ball.

I have now officially given credit to Ohio State’s quarterback, Julian Sayin, for throwing Jeremiah Smith the ball.

If Smith wins the Heisman, he’ll be only the fourth full-time wide receiver to pull it off. (Travis Hunter won the award for playing receiver and defense; Charles Woodson played a bit of receiver but was primarily a cornerback.)

Completely different era, completely different offenses, but: Smith already has better stats this year than Tim Brown did when he won the Heisman in 1987. Brown ended the season with 846 yards and three touchdowns. Through just five games, Smith has 823 yards and nine touchdowns. A better comparison is Alabama’s Devonta Smith, who won the Heisman in 2020. But Devonta averaged 143.8 yards per game (in an admittedly weird COVID season) and Jeremiah is currently averaging 164.9 yards per game.

We also have to consider the possibility of Smith becoming the #1 overall pick in the NFL Draft (he’d be the first since Keyshawn Johnson in 1996.) Smith is considered the best prospect by just about everybody: Of 51 big boards in the consensus database, 43 have him first overall, six have him second, and one is bold enough to say he is only the third-best prospect in this class. Whether Smith is taken first might come down to how badly the #1 pick needs a quarterback.

But that’s a question for the future. For now, we have two more months to watch the best wide receiver prospect anybody can remember. You’d think watching the same guy get open a dozen times a game would get boring, but Smith is a joy to watch. He’s aggressive and creative and explosive.

I plan on savoring his every snap of his final months going up against going-pro-in-something-other-than-sports defenders. (Up next: Maryland.)

Setting the scene: Montana State entered Friday night on a 19-game win streak, and returned many of the key players from last year’s national championship squad. Idaho had lost seven games in a row dating back to last season. Montana State is a perennial powerhouse; Idaho is the only school ever to leave the top tier of college football to head back to the FCS. Montana State plays in a gorgeous stadium in the shadow of the northern Rockies; Idaho plays in a giant metal tube. 

About the giant metal tube: The Kibbie Dome is the internet’s favorite Weird College Football Stadium. It’s not really a dome — it’s more like a half-cylinder, like god’s beer can cut in half. The football tube is long enough to fit exactly one football field. You can’t keep running after scoring a touchdown. The building ends where the field ends, just like your high school’s basketball gym.

The heavily favored Bobcats led by two touchdowns with 10 minutes left. (I assume they were heavily favored. I think looking up FCS betting lines might automatically trigger a call to the hotline.) But Idaho rallied back.

Idaho’s Joshua Wood completed a 25-yard pass to Noah West-Baranco, who was tackled with one second left on the clock. The clock is supposed to stop on first downs until the officials can reset the chains, but by the time the official timekeeper stopped the clock, there was no time remaining …

… However …

The on-field officials ruled that they had actually signaled for the clock to stop with one second remaining. The officials added a second, but Idaho was still in bad shape. As soon as the officials set the chains, the clock would start. They didn’t have enough time to spike the ball, they didn’t have any timeouts, and they didn’t have a play called. They were going to have to run some random desperation play …

… Until … 

Montana State head coach Brent Vigen called timeout, giving Idaho time to think it over. The announcers were immediately confused. Of course, Idaho used the remaining second to score a touchdown and a game-winning two-point conversion.

There’s some debate about whether the officials should have added a second back on the clock. NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay said no, that three separate officials unanimously confirmed that the Idaho player’s knee was down with the clock at zero.

There’s slightly less debate about Vigen’s error. There’s some logic to wanting to call a timeout to get your defense set … but the onus was on the offense, the team with one second remaining, a running clock, and the need to reach the end zone. Vigen’s explanation was not exactly convincing: “It’s one of those situations, do you call a timeout or not call a timeout? We wanted to get regrouped on defense.”

The result: Pandemonium on the Palouse.

I’m not exactly sure what words came out of that cheerleader’s mouth, but I know I agree with her 100 percent. Go Vandals, and whatever else she said.

So the ref maybe got it wrong. Maybe the kick was good. Surely, you’re thinking, this is something we can sort out by looking at the tape. Just review it!

One problem: The rulebook specifically states that this exact play is unreviewable.

From the official NCAA rulebook:

COME ON.

THAT’S SO OBVIOUSLY THE ONE TYPE OF FIELD GOAL THAT SHOULD BE REVIEWABLE. WE OBVIOUSLY DON’T NEED IT FOR THE KICKS THAT GO THROUGH THE UPRIGHTS! JUST THE ONES THAT GO ABOVE THE UPRIGHTS!

For the record, the NFL has the exact same rule, stating that field goals can only be reviewed “if the ball crosses the plane of the goal post below the top of the uprights.”

Unfortunately, it’s pretty tough to tell from available cameras whether a kick has passed over the uprights. I posted this image Friday night, which I think seems to show the ball between the uprights.

But a lot of the replies are people who thought the image clearly shows the ball passing outside the uprights. We just can’t quite tell where the ball is vertically or horizontally.

This has been a problem for years. Former Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher once proposed that leagues install lasers on top of the uprights all the way back in 2012:

Honestly, he had a point. I can’t imagine it would be that expensive to put a little laser on top of the uprights. But it’s not my fault if this somehow causes an issue for airplanes or something like that.

Also in 2012: A Ravens-Patriots game ended with a Justin Tucker kick ruled good after passing over the top of the uprights. The game took place during the NFL referees’ lockout, and Bill Belichick was so mad about the field goal not being reviewed that he grabbed one of the replacement refs on their way off the field to demand an explanation. Of course, it wasn’t really the replacement refs’ fault — it’s a tough rule that they can’t really do much about. (Less than 24 hours later, there would be a much more famous controversial game-ending call featuring the replacement officials.) 

Belichick successfully pushed for the league to extend the length of the NFL’s uprights by five feet in the 2014 offseason. However, engineers told league officials that they couldn’t make the uprights significantly taller for structural reasons.

A similar play in the 2015 Pinstripe Bowl caused Indiana fans to found Homefield Apparel, so the rule isn’t all bad.

So did the Virginia Tech kick miss? … Probably? The view from this angle in the stands behind the kicker looks pretty conclusive to me.

But until somebody figures out how to strap those lasers to the top of the uprights, we’re going to keep having this problem over and over.