If Jeremiah Smith wins the Heisman Trophy for the 2026 college football season, his performance against Iowa will be one of the games people point to. The Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver is putting together a historic run, and the Hawkeyes became his latest victim in Week 5.

A week after Smith went off for 217 receiving yards and four touchdown receptions on 12 catches against Illinois, he did similar damage at Kinnick Stadium in Week 5. Smith finished with 206 receiving yards and two touchdown catches on 11 receptions in Ohio State’s 31-14 road win over Iowa.

Jeremiah Smith had his way with the Iowa defense

It was a dominant performance for Smith, who made it look effortless at times. He had a 57-yard catch and run and kept the chains moving for an Ohio State offense that racked up 484 total yards and 25 first downs.

The Buckeyes left some points on the board and didn’t get off to the best of starts, with the game sitting at 10-6 after the first quarter. However, Ohio State controlled the game the rest of the way. Iowa scored just one touchdown after the opening quarter, and it was the type of complete performance the Buckeyes needed on the road.

This was Smith’s second time going up against the Hawkeyes. The first came during his freshman season in 2024, when he caught four passes for 89 yards and a touchdown in a game played in Columbus.

Iowa is typically good on defense at limiting an opponent’s best player. The Hawkeyes don’t always take a star away completely, but they usually keep the damage in check. That was the furthest thing from the case on Saturday. Smith did whatever he wanted and turned in another 200-yard performance.

Kirk Ferentz is fine with never seeing Smith again

Following the game, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz admitted something that is probably hard for a coach to say about one player. 

“All you can do is your best and try to be as smart as you can playing him, but he’s a great player,” Ferentz said. “With a little bit of luck, we won’t see him again during my career, so that’d be ok [with me] We’ll move on. I’m sure somebody else is coming.”

It’s not simply a thing of fear or anything like that, I don’t believe. It’s just he knows his team is outmatched in a big way when they go up against Ohio State. Still, it’s something coaches don’t often want to admit about a player, that they don’t want to see them again.

Ferentz has seen plenty of great players come through the Big Ten during his time in Iowa City. Coming from him, that’s a telling assessment of where Smith stands.

Smith now has 823 receiving yards through five games. In a 12-game regular season, that puts him on pace for 1,975 yards.

The numbers could get even more ridiculous from there. If Ohio State makes an extended College Football Playoff run, the Buckeyes could play as many as 14, 15, or even 16 games. That’s a lot of extra opportunities for Smith to pile on.

He’s firmly in the Heisman race and is perhaps the leader at this point. It won’t be easy to keep up this pace against the rest of the Big Ten schedule, but when opposing coaches are admitting they’re fine never seeing him again, it shows the kind of player Smith is.