"A beast" - CFB fans boggled by Jeremiah Smith's insane Ohio State record in championship-winning season

Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith put a firm full stop to the national championship game against Notre Dame when he caught a 54-yard pass from quarterback Will Howard for first and goal in the fourth quarter. The Buckeyes subsequently ran out the clock to win the College Football Playoff final 34-23 in a thrilling encounter against the Fighting Irish on Monday night.

Smith's tally of 88 yards from five receptions and one touchdown in the title game brought his total to 1,315 yards on 76 receptions and 16 touchdowns for the season.

Jeremiah Smith cut a niche for himself as Ohio State's most potent weapon in 2024 and added the national championship to his Big Ten Wide Receiver of the Year, Rose Bowl MVP, Big Ten Freshman of the Season and AP All-America Second Team Offense accolades.

College football fans on X were left in awe of Smith's achievements in his freshman season.

Fans were left in awe at the freshman's stellar season.

"He is a bad man to only be a freshman, a beast!!!!" One fan tweeted.

"Dude is a baller," another fan tweeted.

"HIM," one fan tweeted.

Jeremiah Smith calls Notre Dame's bluff

The question of whether the Notre Dame Fighting Irish would change their defensive scheme from man-to-man to zonal to deal with the ever-present threat of Jeremiah Smith dominated conversations in the week leading up to the national championship game.

Fighting Irish cornerback Leonard Moore answered the question confidently during his pregame news conference.

“A lot of teams have gone to a zone mindset when playing them,” Moore said. “I think Penn State played a decent amount of man because that’s their identity. Going into this game, we’re not going to change who we are. We’re going to play man coverage like we do every week.”

During his own pregame news conference, Jeremiah Smith promised to put on a show against the Fighting Irish, and he duly delivered the clutch play of the game to seal the natty win.

During his postgame news conference, national championship-winning coach Ryan Day broke down the decision-making behind Smith's clutch play.

"We felt like we had an advantage with Jeremiah on that shot, and we talked about it all week,” Day said. “We really hadn't thrown one all game, and it was like, you know what, game on the line, let's just go.

“The guys were talking to me about running the clock down, which I was good with because it was the right thing to do. I just thought to myself, only one national championship, you only get one opportunity a year to do this, let's just lay it on the line and put it out there and be aggressive. And that's what we did.”

Jeremiah Smith had an ominous warning to the rest of college football that was captured during the Buckeyes' postgame celebrations when he revealed that he was hoping to win three more national championships at Ohio State, and no one would put it past Ryan Day's dominant team at this point.