Sports Illustrated Hands Out Most Obvious Midseason Award to Jeremiah Smith

Sports Illustrated released its midseason All-American team on Thursday, and of course, Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith made the team, because of course he did. 

Fascinatingly enough, Smith was the only Buckeye to land on this midseason award list, and I truly don't think that is much of a miss. There have been a couple of players who have popped in spots on the defensive side of the ball, but no one has popped quite like Smith.

Jeremiah Smith is the best pure football player in the country. There are several really incredible football players across the sport, but none hold a candle to what Smith can do.

Through five games, Smith is actually second in receptions, yards, and touchdowns in the country to Jesse Legree, the true freshman wide receiver from Oregon State, who is a really good player, but is nothing like Smith.

Smith has 48 catches for 916 yards and 11 touchdowns. He hasn't had a game with fewer than 85 receiving yards; he has two games over 200 receiving yards and three multi-touchdown games to this point.

The correlation is that in each game in which he played all four quarters, he put up 164, 217, and 206 yards in each contest. He is actually unguardable, and when the Buckeyes decide to go to him, there is nothing that anyone can do to contain him.

He can beat you from literally all levels of the field. He wins from behind the line of scrimmage; he wins in the short-route game; he kills people in the intermediate game; and when he wants to go vertically, he is one of the best to ever do it. 

He is incredibly fun to watch and he is just terrorizing all of college football.

For the Buckeyes going forward, he needs to continue to be his dominant self. Ohio State has its sights set on making the College Football Playoff and making a run back to the National Championship.

If it weren't for Smith, that journey would be a really tough one. However, that world doesn't exist, and he is conservatively worth 14 points per game each week, no matter the opponent. 

As long as No. 4 is on the field, the Buckeyes will have a chance against anyone and everyone.

Yes, of course he is on the mid-season All-American list, and when the year ends, he will be on each and every list to follow. Maybe he just might be holding up the Heisman Trophy as well.