Jeremiah Smith is the Heisman favorite now.

Jeremiah Smith is the Heisman favorite. Not a dark horse. Not a name to watch. The favorite. After Saturday's performance, the freshman wide receiver from Ohio State sits at the top of the board, ahead of every gunslinger and dual-threat quarterback in the sport.

This is not a drill.

A true freshman wideout does not win the Heisman. The award goes to quarterbacks who pile up touchdowns and occasionally to running backs who break 2,000 yards. It does not go to 18-year-olds who line up outside. Except Smith just broke the model. Jake Trotter laid it out after Saturday: Smith is not just in the conversation anymore. He is leading it.

The freshman put together a performance that was not just good for his age. It was dominant for any age. Smith torched a secondary that had no answers. He made catches that looked like they belonged on a highlight reel from a different sport. The kind of separation that made defensive coordinators rewind the tape three times to figure out where the coverage busted. Except the coverage did not bust. Smith is just that good.

He caught everything. He turned short throws into long gains. He made contested catches look routine. And he did it on a stage that mattered, against a defense that could not scheme him out of the game. The stat line was absurd. The tape was better. This was not a kid flashing potential. This was a player who belongs in New York in December.

A FRESHMAN RECEIVER IS THE HEISMAN FAVORITE.

The Heisman has been a quarterback award for two decades. Since Derrick Henry in 2015, only one non-quarterback has won it: DeVonta Smith in 2020. And DeVonta was a senior who caught 23 touchdowns in 13 games during a pandemic season. Jeremiah Smith is doing this as a true freshman in a normal year, in a conference that plays defense, on a team loaded with NFL talent at every position.

That is the story. Smith is not winning because Ohio State has no one else to throw to. He is winning because no one in the country can cover him. Not the best corners in the Big Ten. Not anyone. The freshman is beating double teams. He is winning on third down. He is the first read and the safety valve and the deep shot all at once.

Hard hat and lunch pail for Ryan Day. The Ohio State head coach has built an offense that can feature a freshman receiver as the centerpiece and still operate at a national championship level. Day does not force-feed Smith the ball. He does not need to. The freshman just wins his matchups and the quarterback finds him. That is elite program design.

The loser here is every quarterback who thought this was their year. Travis Hunter has been the storyline all season at Colorado, but he plays both ways and splits his stats. The traditional pocket passers do not have the moment Smith just created. No one threw for 500 yards and six touchdowns on Saturday. No one ran for 200 and four scores. Smith just took over a game as a receiver and the Heisman voters cannot ignore it.

What this means

If Smith wins the Heisman, he becomes the first true freshman to ever take home the trophy. No freshman has won it. Not Herschel Walker in 1980. Not Adrian Peterson in 2004. Not Trevor Lawrence in 2018. The award has always required upperclassman credibility or at least a redshirt year to build a resume. Smith is rewriting that rule in real time.

This also shifts how we evaluate the position. Receivers have been ornamental in Heisman races for years. They finish fifth or sixth because touchdowns do not count the same way when someone else throws the ball. Smith is proving that a receiver can be the most valuable player in college football if he is good enough and his moments are big enough. That changes the award.

Ohio State is now the clear favorite to win the national title. When your best player is a freshman who is also the best player in the sport, you have a ceiling no one else can match. The Buckeyes are not rebuilding. They are not developing. They are operating at peak capacity with a player who will be elite for three more years if he stays.

What's next

Ohio State has Penn State next on the schedule. That is a top-10 matchup in Happy Valley, and the Nittany Lions have one of the better secondaries in the conference. If Smith dominates that game the way he dominated Saturday, the Heisman is over. No one will be able to argue that he needs more seasoning or that freshmen do not win the award. He will have beaten every defense the Big Ten could throw at him.

After Penn State, the Buckeyes get Indiana and Michigan to close the regular season. Then the Big Ten Championship Game. Then the College Football Playoff. Smith has six more games to build his case, and every single one of them will be nationally televised. The stage only gets bigger from here.

If he keeps this pace, Smith will not just win the Heisman. He will win it decisively. No split vote. No controversy. The first freshman to ever do it, and it will not even be close.