Eleven catches, 206 yards and a touchdown against Iowa. Eight catches, 164 yards and a touchdown at Texas. Those two lines answer a question Desmond Howard put to the country on Friday, and by Saturday Jeremiah Smith had made the question look small.
On ESPN’s First Take, Howard asked for “one game where Jeremiah Smith, the wide receiver at Ohio State, was the difference in a big game.” He added: “As much as he puts up these magnificent numbers and these one-handed catches, I need moments against the top competition.” Awful Announcing reported that Howard also said nobody in the Heisman field had stood out in a big game, and that Smith still led the rankings anyway.
Less than a day later, Smith broke the Big Ten career receiving yards record in the first half against Northwestern, passing Purdue’s John Standeford and his 3,788 yards, ESPN’s story said. Eleven Warriors noted that Standeford needed four seasons and Smith needed three. He already held the conference record for touchdown catches, passed Michigan’s Braylon Edwards earlier this season, and owns Ohio State’s program marks for receptions, yards and touchdowns. This year alone he has 73 catches, 1,240 yards and 14 scores. A record that took Standeford four years fell to Smith in his third, in the first half of a Saturday, and the Heisman case attached to him got a question mark the day before.
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Howard has a real point in there somewhere, so give it its due. Smith caught four passes for 68 yards and a touchdown against Indiana, the game where Ohio State came apart after Julian Sayin’s injury. Against Oregon he went nearly two quarters without a target. Howard said it himself: “When you talk about Jeremiah, it’s more than just losing Julian Sayin.” A candidate should get asked about the bad nights, and I’d rather he get asked than coddled. Those two games are the best material Howard’s side of the argument has, and it still adds up to a thin pile next to what Smith did everywhere else.
But look at who else is on that Oregon tape. Nearly two quarters without a target says more about the people calling plays and throwing the ball than the guy running routes, and holding that against him is a damn hard sell. A receiver can’t be the difference on a snap where the ball goes somewhere else.
Now count the answers Howard says he wants. The list in Awful Announcing’s own write-up has Iowa at 11-206-1 and Texas at 8-164-1. It has 157 yards and a touchdown in last season’s playoff loss to Miami, a night Smith lost along with everyone else in scarlet and still piled up a full game’s worth of production. It has a national title game where he went 5-88-1 and made the game-clinching catch. Four big games, four lines, and all of them came against exactly the kind of top competition Howard says he needs to see.
The ask itself is fair. The standard behind it is where I get lost. If nobody in the field has stood out in a big game, which is Howard’s own claim, then “be the difference” is a bar nobody has cleared, and Smith is the one being measured against it while the rest of the field gets a pass. That is a weak argument wearing a serious face. Smith’s decision to stay in Columbus over a $10 million transfer offer, by his own account, was supposed to be the loud part of his story. The film is louder.
Howard asked for moments against the top competition. Eleven catches and 206 yards is one. A 157-yard night in a playoff loss to Miami is another. Anyone who wants to read the rest aloud can start with Iowa.
