Can Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith, No. 1 recruit in 2024, set new standard for freshman receivers?

College football Recruiting has changed a lot over the years, but one of the constants that has remained is the weight of expectations for five-star recruits. The higher a recruit’s rating, the greater the expectations that he will immediately become a difference-maker for his team — and perhaps leave conference championships and college football playoff appearances behind him.

In the class of 2024 there is no one with higher expectations than the Ohio State freshman Jeremiah Smith. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound star from Chaminade-Madonna Prep in Opa Locka, Fla., led his team to a perfect 14-0 record and a third straight state title and put up insane numbers in doing so: 88 receptions for 1,376 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2023. TThe Buckeye signee became the first wide receiver to be ranked as the No. 1 overall recruit in the Top247 rankings since 247Sports started them in 2010. He is exactly the generational prospect.

“He has the ready-to-play size to go along with top-tier athleticism and an advanced feel for the position,” he says. 247Scouting Sports Director Andrew Ivins, who compares Smith to Julio Jones. “And he has a pro-professional mentality.”

Before 2024, there were 12 receivers ranked in the top 10 overall players in the Top247 rankings. Dorial Green-Beckham was the Top247’s highest-ranked recruit when he signed with Missouri in 2012 as the second-ranked recruit in the country.

To try to set a reasonable expectation of what Smith’s numbers would look like in 2024, we studied past freshman performance from receivers ranked as top-10 prospects. Some released monster numbers as soon as they arrived on campus and others failed to make an instant impact.

The average season for the 12 receivers ranked in the top 10 overall since 2010 was 40 receptions for 526 yards and between three and four touchdowns in year one. Those would be solid numbers right out of the gate for Smith. When looking at Ohio State’s 2023 receivers, you’ll see that Marvin Harrison Jr. (67) and Emeka Egbuka (41) were the only receivers to have 40+ receptions. Heisman finalist Harrison Jr. led the Buckeyes with 67 receptions, 1,211 yards and 14 touchdown receptions last year, but even a 4-star rated recruit and eventual No. 4 overall draft pick like Harrison Jr.’s yards and three scores in his freshman season. It’s true that the Ohio State room was more crowded then – Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Jameson Williams, Jaxon Smith-Njigba – than it is now (it’s one of the college football best of all).

Smith will have his work cut out in 2024 if he wants to replicate the best freshman numbers put up by the top 12 ranked receivers who came before him.

• In 2011, Clemson’s Sammy Watkins caught 82 balls for 1,219 yards and tied for the most receiving touchdowns in the ACC with 12.
• None of the other receivers had 1,000 yards or double-digit touchdowns in their junior years, but USC receivers Robert Woods (65) in 2010 and Amon-Ra St. Brown (60) in 2018 joined Watkins as the only receivers from the list to catch 60 passes or more.
• The only other receiver to have five or more touchdowns in his first season was Texas A&M’s Speedy Noil in 2014 (he had five).
• The quietest seasons belonged to Penn State’s Shorter (three receptions) and Ohio State’s Fleming (seven) and Egbuka (nine). Shorter and Fleming would end up transferring a few years later.

Egbuka, again, was in a packed room and quickly made up for lost time with 124 career receptions for 1,857 yards and 14 touchdowns. He enters his fourth year in Columbus as the Buckeyes’ No. 1 receiver now that Harrison Jr. has taken his talents to the Arizona Cardinals.

Feel like we’re missing some guys? Yes. Any conversation about big names who lived up to the hype early on must include some pre-2010 highlights. Each of these players was ranked as a five-star recruit in Rivals.com’s rankings during 2003-09. We select those who became instant impact players right from the start. It’s a fun blast from the past.

Harvin added 41 carries for 428 yards and three touchdowns. He was crazy.

Ohio State’s killer receiver recruiting streak, for the most part, means that even the best talent in the country is forced to have a quiet freshman year. However, that won’t be the case for Smith. Unlike others on the list below, he will be a starter from the start – and will need to help the Buckeyes sign new quarterback Will Howard. If Ohio State wants to win the Big Ten and compete for a national championship in 2024, they will need Smith to surpass the freshman performances of Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming. One of the biggest stories in Columbus and nationally this season will be whether Smith can do it.

Five-star recruits always have extra pressure to perform well because of the label and Smith has even more pressure on him as the first wide receiver ranked as the No. 1 overall recruit, although he showed no sign of being affected by the weight of these expectations and has already earned – literally – its stripes. Smith became the first player among Ohio State’s 2024 newcomers to have the black stripe removed from his helmet (a tradition started by former Urban Meyer in 2012 continues today, where new players to the program have a stripe black placed on their helmets so they can earn the right to have their scarlet and gray stripe like all others who came before them).

It’s been a brilliant spring for Smith, so for now, consider him on track or ahead of schedule. So far, so good, but we’ll be following up in the fall to see if he can make not just an instantaneous impact, but a generational one as well.