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No. 8 Ohio State defeated No. 5 Texas in the College Football Playoff Cotton Bowl semifinal on Friday to return to the national championship game for the first time since the 2020 college football season.
And it did so without wide receiver Jeremiah Smith being involved in the Buckeyes’ offense — not by injury, but by a committed and well-executed gameplan by the Longhorns’ defense to quiet the Buckeyes’ star freshman.
It’s a plan that Smith acknowledged worked — albeit in a humorous way.
REQUIRED READING: How Texas cooled Ohio State football’s Jeremiah Smith amid his hot postseason stretch
“Crazy,” Smith responded on X (formerly Twitter) to a tweet of Texas bracketing him during the game.
In the Buckeyes’ Cotton Bowl win, Smith finished with a season-low one catch for 3 yards on three targets. His lone catch of the night came in the first quarter on a short pass from quarterback Will Howard on first-and-10.
Smith was targeted just once in the second half by Howard: an untimely forced pass in the third quarter on first-and-10 at the Texas 48-yard line that was intercepted by Texas’ David Gbenda.
“It was pretty frustrating the whole game,” Smith said after the game, via The Columbus Dispatch after the game. “But was just trusting the coaches and my teammates to get the job done.”
Smith’s quiet game comes after the future projected first-round NFL draft pick had a monster day against No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl, where he finished with 187 receiving yards and two touchdowns on seven catches — breaking Cris Carter’s program record for single-game receiving yards by a freshman.
In Ohio State’s CFP first-round win against No. 9 Tennessee, Smith racked up 103 receiving yards and two touchdowns on six catches.
REQURIED READING: CFP championship odds: Ohio State early favorite vs Notre Dame in title game
After the game, Will…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ohio-states-jeremiah-smith-texas-224540511.html
Author : The Columbus Dispatch
Publish date : 2025-01-11 22:45:00
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