Jeremiah Smith is worth more than Syracuse coach Fran Brown will pay

Syracuse coach Fran Brown has his limits when doling out money for name, image and likeness, and Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith exceeds those limits. 

“With all due respect to everybody in the country, to every wide receiver … if you want to make $2 million as a wide receiver, that’s the lil homie over at Ohio State. Ain’t nobody else making that money,” Brown said on ’Cuse Sports Talk. “I’m not giving no wide receiver no $2 million in college. Nah, that ain’t me. I ain’t doing that. I can’t do that, unless they tell me we get a chance to add Travis Hunter and he can come back to college and he can come here and play and he’s going to get some of my check, but we’re not paying anybody $2 million this year.”

Brown was responding to a question about NIL limits within a conversation about Trebor Pena, who has entered the transfer portal. Pena was Syracuse’s leading wide receiver in the nation’s top passing offense last season with 84 catches, 941 yards and nine touchdowns. He was going to be the team’s top target again in 2025.

“We paid him (Pena) enough. We were going to pay him more,” Brown said. “There were some numbers that were asked to me, and I didn’t feel I would be able to do. I treated him right …  but why would I try to convince somebody to be somewhere when I know the offense works?”

Brown recruited former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord out of the transfer portal in 2023 when McCord left after the loss to Michigan. It is estimated McCord received between $500,000 and $860,000 to join the Orange. Brown said McCord turned down “twice the money” to play at Nebraska.

Buy Ohio State books, posters gear from CFP title win

After McCord broke Syracuse passing records against Ohio University in September, Brown also said he wanted to send Ryan Day a bottle of…

Source link : https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/college/football/2025/04/18/jeremiah-smith-ohio-state-nil-syracuse-football-fran-brown/83137572007/

Author :

Publish date : 2025-04-18 10:03:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.