Buckeyes' Jeremiah Smith Production Through Six Games Has Him A Top of Elite Company

Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith is obviously off to a ridiculous start to start the season. Pick any wide receiver category, and he is likely at the top of the list, or pretty close to it. 

What he is doing on a weekly basis is something that we have never seen before. No, literally, it is production that we have quite literally never seen before.

One of the widely regarded "best college football receivers ever" is, without debate, Randy Moss. Moss was a force to be reckoned with while he was at Marshall, from a physicality perspective and from a production perspective. When he had the football in his hands, there was nobody better than him. 

That was until Jeremiah Smith showed up. 

Moss only got two seasons of football, and in 28 games, he finished with 54 career touchdowns and 3,529 yards. Smith will pass Moss in yards this week but will likely come up short in touchdowns. Regardless, that really isn't the point.

The point here is that the start of Jeremiah Smith's season is the best of all time. Through six games, Smith is averaging 152.7 yards per game. He is one of only three players to average at least 140 yards per game in their third college season. 

He averaged 7 yards per game more than Jerry Rice's 145 and 12 yards more than Moss's 140 yards per game.

We truly have never seen anything like what Smith is doing, and to say it is impressive would be a massive understatement.

The next level of evolution for the Buckeyes is trying to find ways to win with the others on the football field. The first four weeks of the year were very clearly games that the game plan went through No. 4, as it should.

There is a legitimate argument to be made that every single pass attempt should go through Jeremiah Smith. I'd have a hard time arguing that. 

However, to have any semblance of a balanced attack, others have to get involved and right now, the Buckeyes' offense doesn't have enough production elsewhere.

Finding that balance isn't critically important because when the chips are down, you have to go with your best player. However, developing that as an offense will only help the Buckeyes if they ever get into a situation where they are missing Smith.

None of that is Jeremiah's problem right now. What he will continue to focus on is making highlight-reel plays every single time that he touches the football. That is his only requirement, and if he can do that, then the Buckeyes are going to be just fine.

Along the way, he is going to do his best to snatch every single record that he can get his hands on.