Jeremiah Smith may be just a kid from Miami Gardens, Florida, but it didn’t take him long to understand what it means to play for Ohio State. He also learned about the rivalry with Michigan before he was officially a Buckeye.
Joining former FOX’s Urban Meyer, a former Ohio State head coach, along with Rob Stone and Mark Ingram on The Triple Option podcast this week, Smith was asked by Meyer what hits his heart when he hears “The Team Up North.” Smith’s response will not disappoint Buckeye fans.
“Hate,” he said. “With everything in me, I hate them.”
Despite his individual success during his freshman season and helping the Scarlet and Gray win the national championship last year, Smith is 0-1 against the Wolverines. Earlier this offseason, Smith vowed never to lose to the Maize and Blue again and reinforced that at Big Ten Media Days last month.
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But it wasn’t solely because of the loss in late November. Smith’s hatred for “The Team Up North” started during a recruiting visit to the oody Hayes Athletic Center.
“(When I) first came in, I think I made a mistake, and I was wearing dark blue,” Smith recalled to Meyer, Stone and Ingram. “I was wearing dark. And it was coach (Brian) Hartline and coach Keenan Bailey. It was like, ‘You can’t wear them colors here.’ And then from that day forward, I was like, okay, yeah, it’s real.”
Michigan managed to contain Smith last season. The freshman caught five passes for 35 yards, but he scored Ohio State’s only touchdown on a 10-yard reception.
That performance did not forecast future success, as Smith was a key player during the Buckeyes’ College Football Playoff run. The receiver averaged nearly five receptions, over 95 yards and more than a touchdown per game in the postseason. He made the game-winning catch in the national championship, grabbing a 56-yard pass from Will Howard with less than two and a half minutes remaining to set up a 33-yard field goal.
With 17 players from that national championship team gone, Smith is now one of the Scarlet and Gray’s leaders despite being only a sophomore. He admitted he feels the pressure of winning another national championship after accomplishing this early in his career.
“I think a little bit. I feel a little bit,” Smith said. “I feel like everybody thinks we need to go back to back. But that’s something that’s on our mind as well… I think it’s very pressuring that we’re trying to go back to back.”
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Smith and his teammates are focused on this year rather than on what happened in the past. They saw this as a chance for the group to create their own history.
“We moved on,” he said. “I mean, it’s a new team, new year. So we just got to make a name for ourselves. That was last year’s team. We’ve got to make a name for ourselves for this year’s team.”
A good way to make a name for themselves would be winning that game against Michigan on Nov. 29.