Second-year Ohio State Buckeyes football phenom Jeremiah Smith isn't the prototypical Michigan hater. Still, after a year in which his team won the CFP title but still didn't fully get the job done because the Wolverines won "The Game," he gets it more than most.
So much so that Cleveland.com's Jimmy Watkins called Smith the "perfect messenger" for the scarlet's side of the rivalry's venom.
"On the surface, Smith seems a strange choice for keeper of old college football customs. According to On3 Sports, Smith is worth $4.2 million in NIL money. According to the diamonds around his wrist and neck at Big Ten Media Days, those estimates look conservative. And at 19 years old, the sophomore from South Florida grew up with no connection to Buckeye country," Watkins wrote.
"But over the last few months, Smith has been spewing the type of hate typically reserved for lifelong Ohioans. And I’m starting to think he might be the perfect messenger."
Smith has every reason to be frustrated with the team up north. He only had 35 yards receiving and a touchdown in the Week 14 loss that dropped OSU down to the No. 8 seed in the CFP field.
He has every reason to turn that around in the next two years. At this point, knocking off the Wolverines would propel the Buckeyes with enough momentum to get through a second 12-team CFP field.
Smith is the best player on one of the most bloated payrolls in the sport. He has immense pressure not to have a sophomore slump. An NIL raise in 2026 is on the line.
Not to mention, the pressure on the defending champions to repeat is high. The 2,000+ days (and counting) it's been since OSU won "The Game" adds another anxious element.
It's Smith and the Buckeyes against the world.
Good thing the player and the team couldn't be better fits for each other.