Ohio State Buckeyes Freshman Jeremiah Smith Receives Lukewarm Projection

Jeremiah Smith has received a decent, but not great, projection for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2024.

Aug 1, 2024; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Jeremiah Smith (4) runs during football camp at the Woody Hayes Athletic Complex. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Ohio State Buckeyes could not be more excited to get freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith on the field this weekend for his college football debut.

Smith projects to be possibly the next big thing at the wide receiver position for "Wide Receiver U."

Right off the bat, he is expected to receive a huge role with the Buckeyes. Alongside Emeka Egbuka, he is expected to form an elite duo for quarterback Will Howard.

It will be interesting to see how his freshman ends up unfolding.

With that being said, RotoWire has released their projection for him in 2024. It isn't an amazing projection, but it's more than solid.

They have him catching 47 passes for 695 yards and six touchdowns. Those numbers average out to an impressive 14.8 yards per reception.

Obviously, fans would love to see him break out with a 75-catch and 1,000-yard season right off the bat. However, those are insane expectations to have from a freshman.

That isn't to say that Smith couldn't reach those numbers. He has the potential to be a superstar immediately for the Buckeyes.

A lot of his numbers will depend on just how good Howard can be. There are still a lot of questions about Howard and whether or not he can be a quarterback that powers the offense to big-time production. If he ends up being an elite quarterback this year, Smith's numbers should be higher than the above projections.

Only time will tell, but those numbers seem to be a very good baseline for Smith to work with. Hopefully, we'll look back and laugh about these numbers being low.

Ohio State will get its first look at Smith on Saturday in the season opener against the Akron Zips.