Jeremiah Smith blames himself for the pick-six that led to Ohio State’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal loss vs. Miami last season.
Trailing 7-0 in the second quarter, Ohio State was in position to tie the game after Smith hauled in a deep ball from Julian Sayin for a 59-yard gain to get the Buckeyes into the red zone. Just two plays later, however, Miami nickelback Keionte Scott jumped a screen pass by Sayin and returned it all the way for a 72-yard touchdown that gave the Hurricanes a 14-0 lead. Ohio State never climbed out of that hole, suffering a 24-14 loss that ended the Buckeyes’ quest for a second straight national championship.
In the three months since, there’s been plenty of discourse about whether Sayin or Smith was to blame for that play. While the interception goes on Sayin’s statline, Smith failed to block Scott on the pass intended for Brandon Inniss, allowing Scott to run unabated to the ball. Smith was unable to catch Scott from behind as the Miami defensive back sprinted all the way to the end zone.
Smith is pinning the blame on himself and says that play has been a big source of motivation for him this offseason.
“You can say that play is on me, and it's something I'm gonna learn from, for sure,” Smith said Saturday. “It's a humbling moment, and just coming into this offseason, I'm gonna push myself to exhaustion and never make that play happen again.”
Ohio States Cotton Bowl loss to Miami is giving Jeremiah Smith extra motivation this offseason. pic.twitter.com/G3qKzB79F6
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) March 28, 2026
Asked what he thought went wrong on that play, Smith didn’t have a specific answer, giving credit to Scott for making a “great football player.” But he’s seen the criticism he’s received for that play on social media, and it remains in the back of his mind as he prepares for his junior season with the Buckeyes.
“I won't say I think about it, but it's something that's always in the back of my head,” Smith said. “Especially after that game, it was just always on my timeline, on Instagram and stuff like that.”
Going into his likely final season as a Buckeye, Smith has continued to work as hard as ever, earning Iron Buckeye honors for the fourth time in three years for his performance during winter workouts. While Smith is already firmly established as the best wide receiver in college football, a projected top-five pick in the 2027 NFL draft and on pace to break Ohio State’s all-time records for catches, receiving yards and touchdowns, he’s far from complacent with what he’s accomplished so far.
“I'm always trying to find ways to get better. Always trying to find ways this offseason to advance my IQ of the game, be better at yards after the catch,” Smith said. “I'm still the hardest working person on the team. It don’t matter, all the accolades and stuff I got, I still got a mentality that I'm gonna always be the hardest working player on my team. No matter if it’s in the league – I was in high school, the hardest-working player on my team, and in the NFL, I'm gonna be the hardest-working player on the team. So that's something that's been installed in me as a little kid, and that's the only thing I know how to do is work hard.”
“It’s a humbling moment, and just coming into this offseason, I’m gonna push myself to exhaustion and never make that play happen again.”– Jeremiah Smith on the motivation he’s drawing from Ohio State’s loss to Miami
New Ohio State wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton is among those who have been impressed by how hard Smith has worked this offseason.
“He's a generational talent, but more importantly, he's a fine young man. He's a great kid. And he yearns to learn football,” Hankton said. “He yearns to be coached. And he's like that every single day. He's been a sponge. We've put a lot on his plate, but he's handled it well.”
The loss to Miami hurt Smith not only because it ended Ohio State’s season, but because it came against his hometown team – a team that tried extremely hard to flip him away from his Ohio State commitment, and whom he all but confirmed made another push to try to convince him to transfer in January.
“I knew especially at the end of that game that a certain program was gonna come at me very hard,” Smith said. “I'm not gonna say no names. I think everybody here knows who it was. But I wasn't surprised.”
Smith, however, said there was never any question in his mind that he’d be back at Ohio State for another year.
“I was always gonna be at Ohio State,” Smith said with a laugh.
