{"id":85766,"date":"2026-03-13T16:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=85766"},"modified":"2026-03-13T16:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:09:56","slug":"spring-buckeye-breakdown-smith-history-and-a-new-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/03\/13\/spring-buckeye-breakdown-smith-history-and-a-new-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Buckeye Breakdown: Smith, History, and a New Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first two spring Buckeye practices are in the books. Now, Ohio State is taking a short break as the university is on Spring Break. Perhaps the most intriguing positional group for the Buckeyes heading into 2026 is the wide receiver corps. Ohio State is in both familiar and unfamiliar territory. On one hand, the unit must replace another first-round talent<\/a>. On the other hand, Ohio State lost a handful of receivers to the portal, lost Brian Hartline, hired a new coach<\/a>, and brought in two new transfers.<\/p>\n

There are two established veterans at the top of the depth chart<\/a>. After that, there are a lot of question marks. Even then, Ryan Day boasted that this year’s group could be the deepest Ohio State has seen in a while.<\/p>\n

Spring Buckeye Breakdown: Smith, History, and a New Leader<\/h2>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Generational<\/h3>\n

Jeremiah Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The best receiver in the nation. It could be argued that he was the most talented receiver in the country in each of the last two seasons as well, but he was passed over for the Biletnikoff last year<\/a>. The perceived snub has seemingly motivated Smith<\/a>. There isn’t much more to say about Smith. He\u2019s only 43 receptions, 311 yards, and nine touchdowns away from owning the career records for each stat at Ohio State. When the 2027 NFL Draft rolls around, he will have a legitimate argument to be the first wide receiver drafted first overall since Keyshawn Johnson<\/a> in 1996.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressure From Transfers<\/h3>\n

For the first time in Ohio State’s history with the transfer portal, it took in not one, but two transfer receivers. Devin McCuin<\/a> made the jump from USTA, whereas Kyle Parker<\/a> came from LSU. Both players bring another element to the Ohio State offense. They could be enough to push incumbent slot receiver Brandon Inniss<\/a> for snaps.<\/p>\n

Inniss was the third option in the Ohio State attack last year, amassing 271 yards and three touchdowns on 36 receptions. However, both McCuin and Parker may be able to provide the offense with a little more juice. McCuin, in his time at UTSA, averaged 11.2 yards per catch in three seasons. Parker has a career YPC of 11.3 as well. Both new receivers are burners.<\/p>\n

There is only one football, and Smith is going to garner plenty of targets, so if Inniss, McCuin, or Parker icanprovide something different, they will be rewarded. Replacing Carnell Tate<\/a> is going to be its own challenge. But if there is a situation in which Smith is off the field, Ohio State’s offense should be able to survive with the rest of the receiver depth stepping up.<\/p>\n

Not One, But a Few Freshmen<\/h3>\n

All of the talk heading into spring has been about how much of a freak Chris Henry<\/a> Jr. looks to be. Considering he’s a six-foot-five former five-star recruit with an NFL bloodline, it only makes sense. In his two practices, he has impressed coaches and reporters alike with his impressive size. Even with all of that height, Henry can move through his breaks incredibly well. There were a few “freshman moments,” like falling down when breaking upfield or dropping an easy pass, but even for a player of his caliber, Henry should still be in high school. Don’t forget, Smith’s first target was a drop.<\/p>\n

However, Henry may not be the only freshman to make an impact. Don’t forget that Jerquaden Guilford was the top recruit from Indiana and the 12th-best receiver recruit. Brock Boyd, an overlooked and fourth-lowest-rated player in the Ohio State recruiting class, was seen as the smoothest runner in the second practice.<\/p>\n

The wild card in all of this will be Legend Bey. Even though he’s listed as a running back, Bey is an athlete, and he may be too dynamic to keep off the field in one way or another. In addition to his snaps at running back, Bey was taking reps at slot receiver and was working on his receiving chops coming out of the backfield.<\/p>\n

While we haven’t seen the majority of what this wide receiver room can do, Day seems to be incredibly confident. Of course, with new offensive coordinator<\/a> Arthur Smith in town, time will tell what kind of impact Smith and the rest of the group will have in 2026.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This spring Buckeye breakdown takes a look at the wide receiver room. While Ryan Day thinks it’s deep, there are plenty of question marks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":85841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,35609],"tags":[35921,4787,35898,34876,35802,35803,3348],"class_list":["post-85766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-arthur-smith","tag-brian-hartline","tag-brock-boyd","tag-chris-henry-jr","tag-jerquaden-guilford","tag-legend-bey","tag-ryan-day"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85766"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85846,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85766\/revisions\/85846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}