Jeremiah Smith has a quiet game in Ohio State's CFP win over Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas – During the celebration following Ohio State’s 28-14 win over Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinals at the Cotton Bowl on Friday night, Jeremiah Smith ran into Longhorns safety Michael Taaffe.

When they met on the field at AT&T Stadium, Smith learned how committed the Longhorns had been to stopping him.

“My only job was not to let you overdo it,” Taaffe told him.

Taaffe dropped deep into zone coverage and floated toward Smith’s side of the field, which helped double him on frequent stretches.

After Smith burned secondary teams Oregon and Tennessee in previous rounds, the Longhorns tried to avoid a repeat appearance by paying close attention to the rookie and limiting his involvement. Smith caught just one pass for 3 yards, the first time in 15 games he didn’t have multiple balls.

“It was pretty frustrating the whole game,” Smith said, “but I just trusted the coaches and my teammates to do their jobs.”

For all his accomplishments during a brilliant debut season, few defensive backs had given him such treatment, and since there was no shortage of talent in Texas’ top-ranked secondary, led by Jim Thorpe Award winner Jahdae Barron, he wasn’t having it Expected to experience something like that a lot of double coverage.

But on Ohio State’s first drive, Smith realized he was attracting several defenders and seeing safety help.

As he shot a long post shot from the slot, safety Andrew Mukuba continued to backtrack until the ball arrived just short of the end zone. Mukuba held Smith in front of him because the pass was incomplete.

“They wouldn’t let me go deep or shoot,” Smith said.

In the Buckeyes’ previous playoff victories, Smith was an explosive vertical threat who took the lead from defenses. He combined 13 receptions for 290 yards and four touchdowns against Oregon and Tennessee.

Standing in front of his booth in the locker room after the semifinal win, Smith acknowledged that Texas had planned a number of effective coverages but seemed at least a little upset about the effort.

“It shows a lot of respect,” he said, “but DBs should be able to play us 1-on-1.”

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Even though Smith played a smaller role, it didn’t stop the Buckeyes from advancing to the Finals. With all the attention focused on him, quarterback Will Howard relied on other playmakers, hitting another target on 23 of his 24 completions.

On Ohio State’s first touchdown drive of the fourth quarter, Howard found Carnell Tate moving the chains on third down. Taaffe remained on the other side of the field to assist Barron in coverage of Smith, while Tate and others remained in coverage only.

“They tried to take it away,” Howard said, “and I knew we had to control the ball and get it to our other guys.”

Howard ultimately targeted Smith just three times, a trio of passes that included an interception on the opening series of the second half. He attempted to throw a pass into the zone, but the pass didn’t make it past linebacker David Gbenda, who blocked it.

It was the last time Howard targeted him as Texas continued to leave a safety over top.

“Look at what he did in the first two rounds of the playoffs,” Howard said, “and I probably would have done it too.”

Smith said he was helpful as a decoy for the offense.

“It’s probably not the best game I’ve had,” Smith said, “but being able to go to Natty as a freshman is special.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.@joeyrkaufman or send him an email at[email protected].

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Jeremiah Smith has a quiet game in Ohio State’s CFP win over Texas

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