This week, Penn State fans fully expected to have a chance to beat the Ohio State football team. They were hyped up to be a national championship contender in the preseason. Instead, their team has fallen apart, James Franklin was fired, and now the Buckeyes are trying to poach their recruits.
The Nittany Lions will enter the Shoe having lost four straight games. Meanwhile, the Ohio State Buckeyes look like the best team in the country. They still have the best player in college football on offense in Jeremiah Smith, and Penn State's defense is extremely suspect.
Interim head coach Terry Smith is aware of the challenge that his team faces this weekend. He knows that it will be hard for them to pull off a massive upset. As it comes to stopping Smith out wide, he said what every other coach in the country was hoping was going to happen to him.
Terry Smith was hoping Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith would go through a sophomore slump
While speaking in his weekly press conference, Smith told reporters that he was hoping the Ohio State receiver wasn't going to be this good in his second year.
"This week will be an extreme challenge. You know, Ohio State has a long history of great receivers. Arguably, these two are two of the better ones in that list. Jeremiah Smith is as good as they come. We were hoping he'd go through the sophomore slump, but obviously, he's not. He's just got everything. He's big, strong, fast, runs great routes, competes. You know, we have our hands full."
Every other coach in the country was hoping that Smith would go through a sophomore slump this season. It was their only hope of stopping the Buckeyes. Instead, he has been very good once again, even if he hasn't put up the elite numbers that some were expecting from him right away.
Penn State is going to have a hard time stopping him on defense, even though they have the fifth-best passing defense in the country. They just haven't faced two receivers in Smith and Carnell Tate who can attack them in all aspects of the passing game like they can.
This could be a blowout game if things go well for the Buckeyes. That's how bad the Nittany Lions have been in the last few weeks and just how good Ohio State is.