Jeremiah Smith found out in a meeting room before he could see it on his phone.
Ohio State receivers coach Brian Hartline had taken the South Florida job at midnight. By the next morning, he was standing in front of his receivers in Columbus, telling them himself, in a rush before the media leaked the story.
"He was pretty banged up over it," Hartline told CBS Sports about Smith's reaction. "It was not great, you know, and it was not great for us either. And so it was just one of those hard things. I think he knows how much I love him."
That was Dec. 3. Over the next 28 days, Ohio State lost the Big Ten Championship Game to an Indiana team that would go on to win the national title and then to Miami in the Cotton Bowl in the largest upset in the history of the College Football Playoff. Smith played the best statistical game of his season that night in Arlington -- seven catches, 157 yards and a touchdown on 60 snaps -- and watched the Hurricanes, his hometown team with several former high school teammates, celebrate at the other end of AT&T Stadium.
Then the phone calls started. With Smith's coach now in Tampa, big programs smelled blood. Smith has said publicly that the market could have paid him $10 million to leave Ohio State this spring.
He said no.
"It was different types of programs coming at me once [Hartline] left, and once this season was over," Smith said. "But I never really thought about leaving Ohio State. I always wanted to be at Ohio State."
Loyalty mattered to Smith more than the money. Certainly, the payday at Ohio State is already high, but he has at least twice turned down bigger paydays. Three years ago, as the 247Sports Composite's No. 1 overall player, he turned down a lucrative offer from his hometown team, Miami, to remain committed to the Buckeyes.
"I'm not acting like there aren't other pressures or other people around him that could have swayed him," Hartline said. "But he always shot me straight. His dad always shot me straight. And that's who they are to this day. Everything they say is real."
It wasn't until coach Ryan Day's press conference on signing day three years ago that he learned Smith was sticking with Ohio State, prompting him to feign fainting behind the podium.
Smith's father had one piece of advice during the process. "Don't be led by money," Chris Smith told CBS Sports at the time.
Mario Cristobal was doing his best to keep the local talent at home, much like his championship-winning predecessors did in the "State of Miami" days in South Florida. Money flowed in those early NIL days, and few programs could match Miami's deep pockets. Three players from Smith's high school chose Miami, and two years later, they were on the field in Arlington when they ended Ohio State's season in the CFP quarterfinals.
The situation in January was different. Hartline, who recruited Smith in high school and developed a strong bond with his family, was no longer in the picture. The most hopeful programs viewed it as an opening to entice the best receiver in college football to enter the portal.
But, once again, Smith didn't budge.
"It would be dumb for me to leave Ohio State and go to another team when I have the best offensive line in the country, the best quarterback in the country, the best coaches in the country," he said. "That would be a stupid move for me to go somewhere else."
This is the third -- and almost certainly final -- season of the most valuable career anyone in college football has managed to put a price on. Smith is 20 years old, 6-foot-4 and 222 pounds, and a projected top-five pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. He had 27 touchdown catches in his first two seasons, the most by an FBS player since Davante Adams did it 13 years ago. He has electrified the sport with 163 catches for 2,558 receiving yards during that time, helping lead the Buckeyes to a national championship as a freshman.
Still, he has yet to snag the Biletnikoff Award in two seasons. Last December, he finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting, one spot behind a Texas Tech linebacker and two behind Julian Sayin, his quarterback.
Smith already has a strong legacy at Ohio State. He cemented that as the fastest newcomer to have the black stripe removed from his helmet, a sign that a player has become a true Buckeye. What he does this season will determine just how legendary Smith will be in the eyes of Ohio State fans.
What does a legacy look like for a player who appears to have everything already?
"I think the first thing is winning two national championships in three years," Day said.
'Why was that good?'
Ask Hartline what Smith still wasn't good at when he left the program in December, and he won't talk about hands, releases, or the top of a route.
"When you say go, that dude goes," Hartline said. "He doesn't think twice about, 'Should I, or am I saving myself for the next round?' He just goes."
Still, there is a problem with being so naturally gifted -- the physical excellence can lead to mental complacency.
"Frankly, he was just learning all the things of why he did what he did and why it was good," Hartline said. "He just did it because he did it. He didn't really know the why behind it."
So the two years they had together became a constant quiz for Smith. The elite athlete would run a route that worked, and Hartline would stop him.
"Why was that good?" Hartline said, playing both parts. "I don't know. So we spent the first two years just -- he always wants a challenge. So I'm always finding different ways to challenge him. But he's also trying to learn the why. Like, why are things good? Why are things bad?"
The questions have stopped because of the separation. Hartline, now running his own program at USF, isn't at Ohio State's practices, building the knowledge required to become the best player in the country.
"How does he become his own coach as coaches change?" Hartline said. "If you don't have that foundation, then you're so reliant on coaching that it's really hard to be successful in the long run, because coaches move around so much."
Hartline spent two years teaching Smith not to need him. He quizzed him often, preparing him for the inevitable moment of change. This season is the test.
"I get so paranoid about these guys understanding why it works, why the technique works, why the body language, the landmarks, what is the quarterback's read, where are you at in your progression?" Hartline explained. "All of those things are really, really important to really maximize the athlete, especially at receiver."
Hartline was at Ohio State for eight years and put six receivers into the NFL's first round in five drafts -- and no program has come close to replicating that success rate. Smith will almost assuredly be the seventh first-rounder, though Hartline won't be there to send him off -- or lead him toward a second national title in three years.
"I wanted to be at Ohio State forever," Hartline said. "That's really the mentality. It always was. And, you know, for whatever reason, as a family, we just felt like it was the time to go start a new chapter."
The call to become a head coach was coming one day. Hartline has long been seen as a rising star, but the timing was awkward. "It was really hard. It still is to this day. I still think about those guys all the time," he said.
Those six players now in the NFL haven't disappointed. Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave -- who owns Ohio State's career receiving TDs record (35) -- have eclipsed 1,000 yards in three of their first four NFL seasons. Jaxon Smith-Njigba has two 1,000-yard seasons in three years, including a league-leading 1,793 yards last season for Seattle.
Smith could be better than all of them. He needs 43 catches, 341 receiving yards and nine touchdowns to hold all three of Ohio State's career receiving records.
"He has the right mentality. He wants to be the greatest of all time," Hartline said. "He's willing to put in the work to be the greatest of all time. That's the formula.
"Jeremiah's mentality, and the way he hit it from his first day on campus, was a little different than maybe the other guys, because usually it takes a little more time to kind of form into that. But he had that from Day 1"
What's left
Ohio State starts the season as the preseason No. 1, a precarious position in the new age of college football. Three of the last four teams to start the year atop the polls failed to reach the College Football Playoff, including Texas last season, which the Buckeyes defeated in Week 1.
The wealth of top-tier talent that left the 12-2 team a season ago is immense. Four of the first 11 picks in the NFL Draft were from Ohio State, the most by a program since Michigan State in 1967.
Ohio State's offense is still loaded with returning starters, but the receiver room took a hit. Carnell Tate left early for the NFL Draft as the fourth overall selection, and six others, including four-star Quincy Porter and Mylan Graham, entered the transfer portal, accounting for half the combined total that departed during Hartline's eight previous years at the school.
Brandon Inniss returns after catching 36 passes. Two transfer receivers are now on board -- Hartline never had a transfer receiver at Ohio State -- and two new assistants are leading the offense: former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith is the offensive coordinator, and LSU's Cortez Hankton has stepped in for Hartline to coach the receivers.
The defense was hit the hardest. The Buckeyes led the nation in scoring defense (9.3 points per game), the best in the FBS since 2011, and lost eight starters, including three in the top 11 selections of the NFL Draft.
The best player or the best stats?
Smith's case is quieter than the loud numbers attached to him and the heightened expectations that accompany last season's notable departures.
"I'm not just going to the coach's office and saying, 'Oh, give me the ball.' I'm not demanding," Smith said. "They know they've got to give me the ball. I don't have to say it. It's in plain view."
Smith says he studies old interviews with Kobe Bryant about mindset, as well as those of Michael Jordan and Tom Brady, none of whom he has ever met.
"I'm literally an old head," he said.
On the field, his approach has led to elite production and plenty of nods on All-America teams, but individual awards have avoided him. Last season, the Biletnikoff Award went to USC's Makai Lemon, who finished the regular season with 70 more receiving yards than Smith and the same number of touchdowns. Lemon played all 12 games. Smith missed a game and a half in November with a quad injury and nearly sat out the rivalry game against Michigan, the Buckeyes' first win in "The Game" in six years.
"I don't think you guys know, he could barely walk early in the week," Day said, "and he found a way to come in and catch that fourth-and-5."
The catch went 35 yards for a touchdown, giving Ohio State a lead it never relinquished. The Buckeyes won 27-9 in Ann Arbor. Smith finished with three catches, 40 yards and his first pair of gold pants -- the traditional trinket awarded to players for beating Michigan.
The Heisman Trophy, however, is the bigger prize and the one he seemingly has his eyes trained on as a junior.
Asked in Chicago at the Big Ten's media days in July how a receiver is supposed to win a Heisman Trophy, Smith reached for the last one who did: Alabama's DeVonta Smith in 2020.
"I don't even know the criteria of what they look at," he said. "I think, is it the best stats? Is it the best player? I don't really know."
So, what should the criteria be?
"The best player in the country," Smith said. "That's what they should be looking at. Not stats. Not positions."
Nine hundred miles south, Hartline already knows the answer to the next question, well before any games are played this fall.
"The more consistent the person, the more consistent the player," he said. "And he is probably one of the most consistent people when it comes to prep and operation that we've coached. So the combination of all that -- it would be really hard-pressed to not say he's the best player in the country. Jeremiah Smith is by far, in my mind, the best player in the country."
The stats have never been the problem anyway. In six career postseason games, every one of them against a top-10 team, Smith has 34 catches for 682 yards and six touchdowns, an average of 20 yards per reception.
Day spent much of the summer describing Smith as a leader.
"He doesn't do a lot of speaking to the team," Day said. "But when he speaks, everybody listens."
He paused. "I'm not saying that's easy for him, by the way."
The curtain call
If Ohio State is to win a national championship, it must navigate perhaps the roughest road it has ever faced. Six opponents are ranked in the preseason AP Top 25, including four on the road, starting with the Week 2 trip to No. 5 Texas. Later in the season is a three-game stretch against top-15 opponents: an Oct. 17 trip to No. 6 Indiana, then at No. 14 USC, and at home against No. 2 Oregon.
All summer, people have asked whether a schedule like that helps a playoff résumé, as if fans should expect at least one loss against that gauntlet. Day is 82-12 at Ohio State, the best winning percentage of any FBS head coach with at least 75 games since the AP poll began in 1936.
"It's helpful if we win the dang games," he said.
Smith has one more season on the road to a national championship. Smith hasn't said it's his last year at Ohio State, but the expectation is hovering in the background -- just like those championship hopes every year at Ohio State.
He can feel the finality approaching.
"Kind of sad a little bit, I should say. Kind of sad," he said. "But I'm going to give it everything I got."
