Jeremiah Smith is regarded as the top wide receiver in the nation after playing a key role in leading Ohio State to a national championship as a freshman. Although the Buckeyes fell short of returning to the title game last season, Smith is expected to make an even bigger impact in 2026.
Ryan Day Explains Why Jeremiah Smith Stayed Despite $10 Million Offer
Ryan Day made an appearance on “The Not Just Football with Cam Heyward” podcast on Wednesday, where he covered several topics related to Ohio State. During the conversation, Day explained how the program managed to keep Smith despite strong transfer interest from other schools.
“What we said we’re going to do for Jeremiah we followed through with and I think there’s a lot of trust there that’s been built over the last three years,” Day said (35:00). “So when all that went down, it’s just a bunch of grown people getting together and talking it through and then saying, ‘Okay, this is what this is what we expect. This is what you expect.’ We shake our hands, and we both have to follow through on our end. And that’s exactly what happens.
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“If you want to bring in folks in your program that are focused on making the most money or all those different things, well then you’re going to have an issue somewhere down the line where people are going to leave for more money.
“Jeremiah, I mean, I think he said it before publicly, could have gone other places probably for more money, but he was thinking big. I think that’s the thing for some of these guys who are the elite, because we again take pride in saying that we think we’re the best at developing the elite player, the elite talented young player. We take a lot of pride in that.”
Smith shocked many on Wednesday by telling On3’s Chris Low that he could have made massive money if he had entered the transfer portal this offseason, and the amount is “over $10 million.”
He said several teams told his agent they had a certain amount of money available for him to come to their team. Smith didn’t name specific schools, but he hinted that Miami made an effort to bring him back to South Florida after Ohio State’s 24-14 loss to the Hurricanes in the 2025 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.
“Just because they beat us and things went their way, I wasn’t going back home,” Smith told On3. “No reason to go back home, not when I’m at the best place in the country. I came to Ohio State for a reason: to win championships, develop as a player and a person, and keep building on this legacy. I might have grown up in South Florida, but I’m a Buckeye. That’s not changing. I wasn’t going anywhere.”
The reported figure would have been one of the largest for a college athlete. Smith reiterated last month that he “was always going to stay at Ohio State.”
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He now returns for his junior season after posting 87 receptions for 1,243 yards and 12 touchdowns last year. He also earned an 85.1 grade in the PFSN College Football WR Impact Metric, ranking No. 5 nationally in 2025.
Smith has totaled 163 catches for 2,558 yards and 27 receiving touchdowns, along with two rushing scores in his first two seasons with Ohio State. He is already being discussed as a potential top pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, with a chance to become the first wide receiver selected No. 1 overall since Keyshawn Johnson in 1996.
